Biography

Born in Brest in 1986, Thomas Gelebart aka TOM GELEB is a self-taught artist who has been living and working in Paris since 2012. He grew up in French Polynesia, where he holds a part of his origins and which still inspires him every day in creating his works.

The attacks of Paris in 2015 are for the artist a real trauma, which will focus his work around a unique emotion: love. Thus was born the character of Téva or rather Tevā, whose vocation is to transmit this feeling to the greatest number of people, through the paintings and drawings of Tom Geleb, but also through graffiti and collages made in the streets of Paris. His character, the “heart blower” Téva, whose name means "the great traveler" in Tahitian, but also "the downpour of love", is most often created in black and white, with lines reminiscent of traditional Polynesian tattooing.

Each appearance of Téva is like a scene from our daily lives, reminding us that at every moment and in every gesture, love must be omnipresent, thanks to a heart blown, posed, offered to the spectator. Sharing love is the leitmotif of the artist and Tevā his messenger.