0xec6d0 (read “hex-ec-six-d-zero”) is a French contemporary artist born in 1990 whose civil identity remains deliberately vague— some commentators place his origins in London, others in Paris. His alias is the hash of his first crypto wallet, an homage to the digital culture that defined his former life as a tech-startup CEO. In 2025 he emerged as the founder and chief voice of the movement “The New Brutalism,” a radical, minimal reboot of classic brutalist ideas applied to canvas.
From tech boardrooms to instinctive painting
After shutting down his company, 0xec6d0 retreated to his studio for two years and worked in a neo-expressionist style on current society, addressing Cancel Culture, Progressivism, Conservatism, but also blockchain, trading and AI. In mid-2025, after an art curator told him to “try new things,” he created a manifesto that launched him into a new movement:
La toile blanche, le trait qui est la quintessence de l’artiste. Des couleurs primaires. Un message fort.
That sentence crystallised The New Brutalism: raw gesso, bold intersecting lines in heavy black, and strict primary planes that never overlap. A flash of phthalocyanine green—his signature—echoes moss on a concrete wall and reminds the viewer that hope lives inside rigor.
Process: “art of instinct”
Every piece is completed in 30 to 60 minutes on 100 percent cotton canvas with Liquitex Heavy Body acrylic. The artist drops four or five fast dabs of red, yellow, then blue. Next come the black strokes that define – generally – profile of a man, frontal portrait of a woman and spontaneous geometric motifs. A strategic green patch follows, then fine brush highlights, and finally a last sweep of black. This rapid chain keeps the work alive and unpolished; nothing is reworked.
Two recurring symbols anchor the narrative. First, a dove that tumbles from the sky—a silent stand-in for the word Ichthus he painted every time in each of his Neo-expressionist canvas. Second, a dialogue between a male figure in profile and a female figure face-on, titles always given in French to preserve elegance and power.
Key works and the stylistic break
Collectors single out Le Dejeuner sur l’Herbe, La Creation d’Adam, L’Amour a la Plage and especially Ta Societe. The latter marks his pivot from neo-expressionism to New Brutalism: he stripped away text, heavy color blocks and mixed media, keeping only form, message and the breathing space of white ground.
“My intention with New Brutalism is above all to put the artist’s hand back at the center of the work. The way each great master draws is recognizable, like mine. I wanted with these lines to be as close as possible to my soul as an artist rather than my soul as a scientist or thinker. Here I express myself in a raw, rapid, vital way, because that’s it, and that’s the movement that I prefer in art: it doesn’t drain, it doesn’t take all my energy, and in the end, when I’ve finished the canvas, I’m certain I can display them next to a Picasso, a Basquiat without having to blush, something I’m not sure of with my neo-expressionist canvases. Above all, it’s my own style, that’s how I’ll be recognized tomorrow.“
— 0xec6d0
Market presence and pricing
True to the brutalist ethos of direct structure, 0xec6d0 releases all current production through Catawiki. Each XXL canvas carries a reserve price of 500 euros. Direct purchases average 600 euros, while European galleries list his larger works between 3,000 and 5,000 euros, sold unstretched so the collector decides how to frame the “concrete slab.”
Brutalist DNA and influences
He cites Le Corbusier—especially the architect’s purist paintings— as a core influence, yet diverges through austere colour discipline. His visual language sits between brutalist art, stripped-down street art and trendy neo-brutalist UI design, a natural bridge for an artist with tech roots.
Critical reception
Design blogs and auction curators describe him as “Basquiat without excess, Corbusier with heartbeat.” They praise a neo-brutalist art that subtracts rather than adds, carving silence into the digital roar. In a saturated visual world, 0xec6d0 offers canvases where every mark counts and empty space speaks louder than pigment.