Mr. Cat
Thoma Vuille, alias Monsieur Chat, is a French-Swiss urban art painter born on July 16, 19771 in Boudry, in the canton of Neuchâtel.
He is the creator of the graphic series M. CHAT, a smiling feline character created in the streets of Orléans in an approach combining optimism, transgression and local culture.
Thoma Vuille began street painting in acrylic at the age of 15, in memory of his grandfather, a house painter. After a vocational baccalaureate in civil engineering, he was a student at the Institut d'arts visuels d'Orléans from 1995 to 20012. He became known as the author of the M. CHAT series, graphic creations representing an orange-yellow cat with a broad smile, generally made with acrylic paint on walls.
The idea came to him in 1997 during a workshop in a school in Orléans during which a little girl drew a cat that inspired the artist. He then began to paint his cat on the walls of the city of Orléans, preferably on the roofs, with the sole aim of "putting humanity and love into the city: Orléans was a rather grey city and we needed a bit of sun everywhere". In this way, he intended to convey the optimism of this animal with a big smile. He signed his works with a mysterious "Mr. CAT", to "know if a drawing can live without a creator". He thus suggests that behind these graffitis lies a collective of artists.
Thoma Vuille then began an international career. He painted his Mr. CHAT in Tours, Nantes, Saint-Étienne, Paris, London, Vienna, Geneva and New York, then the now famous cat appeared in 2004 on the esplanade of the Centre Pompidou for the TV film Chats perchés by Chris Marker, in 2005 on the Sarajevo tramway, in 2006 in a New York demonstration.
On March 18, 2007, Thoma Vuille was caught red-handed by the municipal police while decorating a wall in Orléans. He was thus forced to reveal the identity of the creator of M. CHAT, but the justice system only handed him a symbolic suspended fine of 300 euros. He then abandoned his status as an underground graffiti artist to work in partnership with institutions, such as the city of Orléans or the Regional Council of Poitou-Charentes. This development is sometimes criticized because it is interpreted as a renunciation of a critical approach and as a commercialization of the concept of M. CHAT, which the artist defends himself by arguing that his art is reaching maturity and that after ten years on the RMI, he aspires to make a living from his work.
He also maintains a permissive attitude towards the urban environment, which he believes can be appropriated despite legal prohibitions. Thus, in 2008, he endorsed the illegal use of a public bicycle found in the street, arguing that this service must be practical and accessible "all the way", even if it means accepting thefts if it means that users "stuff themselves with it until they can't take it anymore".
Similarly, in 2014, he justified the painting, not authorized by the RATP, of his M. CHAT at the Châtelet metro by once again asking the question of the appropriation of public space: "As a user, can we have ideas on the decoration of our environment? Is my drawing really more offensive than the dozens of advertisements permanently displayed in the corridors of the metro?"
To the question "What are your obsessions and how do they feed your work?", he answers "The relationship with authority and the transgression that results from it" (source Wikipedia)

To discover at the gallery
His Work

