Decorating our streets since 1986, CEPT is one of the UK’s most highly respected and pioneering graffiti artists. His unique style combines old school graffiti, psychedelia and pop art in a sci-fi inspired explosion of exaggerated colour and cosmic forms. Under the influence of music, CEPT’s murals employ a strong element of visual sampling – deftly borrowing imagery and ideas from comic books, pop art, song lyrics, art history and graffiti wherever needed.

CEPT routinely takes titles from cult songs by bands like Joy Division and The Smiths, and assigns them new meaning as titles for his murals. “My work has always been inspired by music and sampling - to compose a piece that combines my favourite songs with my love of comic book art and the human obsession with relationships seemed a natural progression of my style.” The subject matter in many of CEPT’s most well-known murals, like Love Will Tear Us Apart and To Die By Your Side, have a distinctive romantic quality to them, with super-heroes and distressed damsels longingly embracing.

In terms of CEPT’s street credentials, his graffiti roots run deep. “Graffiti is a massive part of me, it is who I am, how I grew up and the friends I've made. I get a lot of satisfaction painting graffiti, it’s instant, in your face, burners all over the place, the whole action of painting a huge piece - it can’t be beaten. It’s a feeling like nothing else.” CEPT has painted both as a solo artist and collaboratively with infamous co-conspirators Burning Candy Crew and The Rolling People (TRP). His work has been exhibited worldwide and is visible on streets across the UK, Europe, the United States and South America.

Chris Pensa, House of Graffiti