Zoo Art Show Paris La Défense
- Delphine & Romain Class
- Jan 29
- 5 min read
An XXL Immersion into the Jungle of Street Art
Since its installation in the heart of the Paris La Défense business district, the Zoo Art Show has been shaking up the conventions of contemporary exhibitions. This extraordinary project, bringing together over 500 artists from 28 countries, has transformed a former office building into a monumental urban jungle, celebrating forty years of street art and graffiti culture.
Opened in January 2025, the exhibition was initially scheduled to close at the end of 2025, but has been extended until June 2026 due to its immense public success. This extension reflects the enthusiasm sparked by this immersive experience, which has become one of the most remarkable cultural events in the French capital.
A Legendary Building Reimagined Through Art
The venue, located at 4 Place de La Défense, is a former multi-storey office building that has been completely renovated to host this large-scale exhibition. Where once grey corridors and anonymous open spaces followed one another, there now stretch over 4,000 square metres of visual, sound, and immersive creations.
Every room, every wall, every staircase has been taken over and transformed by the artists. The building’s raw architecture — with its concrete walls, labyrinthine corridors, and open floors — has inspired site-specific interventions that play with light, volume, and perspective. Visitors wander through a space in constant transformation, where the boundaries between gallery, studio, and industrial wasteland dissolve.
What makes this project even more remarkable is that 350 of the 500 participating artists worked directly on-site for nearly two months, painting, sculpting, and installing their works over the course of several weeks. The building thus serves not only as an exhibition venue but also as a giant, living workshop, bearing witness to the creative process as it unfolds.
Under the artistic direction of DIZE and SNAKE, the space has been conceived as a progressive experience: each floor tells a chapter in the history of street art, from the raw graffiti of the 1980s to the most immersive and technological forms of the 21st century.
The Leading Figures of the Zoo Art Show
A true superstar of the international art scene, KAWS (Brian Donnelly) is an American artist whose work oscillates between pop art and urban culture. Known for his hybrid characters with crosses for eyes, inspired by figures like Mickey Mouse or the Simpsons, KAWS blurs the line between street art, sculpture, and design. His works, both playful and melancholic, question the overconsumption of images and the homogenisation of popular culture. At the Zoo Art Show, he serves as a bridge between the graffiti of its origins and global contemporary art, symbolising the institutional recognition of street art.
JonOne – Gesture and Colour
JonOne (John Andrew Perello), born in Harlem and living in Paris since the 1980s, is one of the pioneers of abstract graffiti. A founding member of the collective 156 All Starz, he is famous for his flamboyant canvases, where colour bursts in gestural compositions reminiscent of abstract expressionism. At the Zoo Art Show, JonOne presents unprecedented works that reflect his unique journey: a bridge between street and gallery, between chaos and freedom. His universe embodies the organic vitality of graffiti, where every drip becomes a manifesto of liberty.
Invader – The Pixel Icon
It is impossible to talk about urban art without mentioning Invader, a French artist internationally renowned for his mosaics inspired by 1980s 8-bit video games. His famous Space Invaders can be found across the world, from Tokyo to Los Angeles, and are now present in this La Défense building, colonising the walls like symbols of gentle resistance. With his universal visual language, Invader transforms the walls of the Zoo Art Show into a digital playground, highlighting the intersection of art, technology, and collective memory.
JR – The People’s Eye
JR is a photographer and visual artist whose work is based on a simple principle: pasting giant portraits on walls around the world. His works give a face to the anonymous, questioning borders, freedom, and social visibility. Within the Zoo Art Show, JR occupies the interior façades of the building with monumental collages. By confronting everyday faces on the scale of the architecture, he creates a striking contrast between the power of the image and the coldness of concrete, between humanity and verticality.
Miss.Tic – Feminine Poetry
A historic figure of Parisian stencil art, Miss.Tic (1956–2022) was one of the first women to leave a lasting mark on the street art scene. Her feminine silhouettes, accompanied by poetic and ironic phrases — such as “I put words on all the walls” — made her a pioneer in the dialogue between art, feminism, and urban literature. At the Zoo Art Show, her universe is celebrated as an essential heritage, representing an artist who paved the way for a whole generation of urban female creators, blending audacity, vulnerability, and independence.
Zenoy – The Chromatic Energy of French Graffiti
Zenoy, an iconic figure in Parisian graffiti since the 1990s, brings to the Zoo Art Show an explosion of colour and dynamism. Coming from the classic graffiti scene, Zenoy has made his mark through lettering, gradients, and ultra-vibrant typographic designs. His works are instantly recognisable: bright backgrounds, fluid lines, and an instinctive use of colour that celebrate the vitality of the hip-hop movement and the freedom of the street.
An Inspired Artistic Direction: DIZE and SNAKE
At the helm of this colossal project, DIZE and SNAKE, two respected figures of the French graffiti scene, orchestrate the coherence of the exhibition. DIZE, a graffiti artist from the 1990s, is known for her free and instinctive approach to lettering and textures. She has infused the exhibition with a sensitive and curatorial dimension, designing each space as a visual narrative.
SNAKE, a graffiti artist and scenographer, coordinated the interventions of hundreds of artists, ensuring a balance between spontaneity and overall harmony. Their partnership perfectly embodies the fusion of urban authenticity and museum-like staging, transforming a concrete building into a true collective work of art.
A Living, Artistic, and Educational Space
The Zoo Art Show Paris La Défense is not just to be visited: it is to be experienced. Between light-filled corridors, immersive installations, and participatory spaces, the public is invited to dive into a living fresco that celebrates creativity in all its forms.
This monumental project proves that a disused space can become a laboratory of living culture, a place where art dialogues with the city, and where artists transform urban spaces into a collective imagination.
Practical Information
Address: 4 Place de La Défense, 92800 Puteaux
Dates: 9 January – 28 June 2026
Tickets: available online at zooartshow.com
Recommended visit duration: approximately 90 minutes
Audience: suitable for all ages, from 7 years old
Le Zoo Art Show Paris La Défense est bien plus qu’une exposition : c’est une expérience sensorielle et collective, un manifeste pour la vitalité du street art contemporain.Dans ce bâtiment métamorphosé, les univers de KAWS, JonOne, Invader, JR, Miss.Tic et Seth dialoguent dans une symphonie visuelle portée par DIZE et SNAKE, donnant naissance à l’une des expositions les plus ambitieuses de la décennie.
Comments