Aladdin Sane
7 works
Invader Alert : System Infected (Black) For Sale
Invader
Alert : System Infected (Black), 2021
Silkscreen
23 5/8 x 23 5/8 in ; 60 x 60 cm
Edition
Edition of 60
About this work
Invader stands as one of the most influential figures to emerge from the street art movement, having built an international reputation through his distinctive pixelated mosaic installations that now number in the thousands across more than eighty cities worldwide. His work bridges the gap between urban intervention and collectible fine art, commanding significant attention from both institutions and private collectors. The artist's deliberate anonymity and systematic documentation of his global project have cultivated a devoted following and sustained market demand. Alert : System Infected (Black) exemplifies Invader's ongoing dialogue between early video game aesthetics and contemporary visual culture. The composition renders a warning message in the artist's characteristic eight-bit style, transforming the familiar anxiety of a computer virus alert into a striking graphic statement. The black palette lends the work a sense of urgency and sophistication, while the rigid grid structure pays homage to the technological limitations that first defined pixel art. This tension between nostalgia and modern unease speaks to our increasingly fraught relationship with digital systems and the vulnerabilities they expose. Executed as a silkscreen measuring sixty by sixty centimeters, this work belongs to a limited edition of sixty impressions, reinforcing the artist's commitment to accessibility while maintaining collectibility. Invader's editions consistently perform well on the secondary market, reflecting sustained institutional and collector interest in his practice. Guy Hepner is pleased to offer this significant work from one of the most recognized names in contemporary street art. For acquisition inquiries or additional information regarding Alert : System Infected (Black), please contact the gallery directly.
Price on Application
Auction History
Invasion Kit #15: Glow in the Space · Invader · Artcurial · 2025-12 · $14,432
3D Little Big Space; Rubik's X Invader Cube · Invader · Bonhams · 2024-09 · $1,131
Alert 2020 (Red) (C.P.E. 52a) · Invader · Phillips · 2024-06 · $0
Rubik Kubrick I (Alex) · Invader · Artsy Auction · 2024-02 · $2,500
More from this series
Related Reading
More series by Invader
About the Alert System Series
Series Performance & Market Position
Invader's Alert System series represents one of the most conceptually coherent bodies of work the French street artist has produced in edition form — a systematic engagement with surveillance culture rendered in his signature pixelated mosaic aesthetic. At Guy Hepner, Invader works have attracted collectors drawn to the intersection of street art, digital culture, and formal abstraction, and the Alert System editions have performed consistently within his secondary market.
Signed and authenticated Alert System prints regularly achieve €5,000–€20,000 at specialist street art auctions, with rare variants and large-format works commanding multiples of standard edition prices. Invader's overall market has strengthened considerably since his major international installations and retrospective attention.
Technical & Historical Context
The Alert System series draws on Invader's signature technique — pixel-based imagery derived from early video game graphics — to interrogate surveillance infrastructure. Alert symbols, warning signs, and digital notification iconography are rendered in mosaic tile compositions that bridge his street installation practice and his print work.
Invader's print editions are typically produced in strictly limited quantities and authenticated through a documented system that provides collectors with confidence in provenance. The physical mosaic works — ceramic tiles installed on urban surfaces globally — inform the visual language of the prints while functioning as distinct objects.
Individual Works & Collector Preferences
Within the Alert System series, works with the strongest colour contrast and most legible pixelated compositions command premiums. Collectors frequently acquire multiple works from the series to create installation groupings that replicate the serial logic of the street works.
Authentication & Condition Considerations
Invader provides authentication documentation for his editions. Works without this documentation carry substantially reduced market value. Condition considerations are standard for print works; the bold, flat colour areas of Invader's aesthetic are relatively robust against fading compared to more tonally complex prints.
Contact Guy Hepner at 177 10th Avenue, New York to enquire about Invader Alert System editions and current availability.
Invader's Practice in Context
Invader (a pseudonym; the French artist's identity remains undisclosed) has installed thousands of numbered ceramic tile mosaics in cities across six continents since beginning the project in 1998, each based on characters and imagery from early video games, most prominently Space Invaders. The Alert System series translates this street-installation practice into an edition context, applying the same pixel-based visual grammar to imagery drawn from surveillance and digital notification culture.
Invader documents each of his street installations via a dedicated mobile app ("Flash Invaders"), turning the global scavenger hunt for his work into a participatory game — a structure that has helped make his practice one of the most widely recognised in contemporary street art, extending well beyond traditional gallery audiences into a broader participatory public.
About Invader
Invader is a French anonymous artist who has, since 1998, systematically invaded the urban fabric of cities on six continents with small mosaics constructed from ceramic tiles in the pixelated visual language of the 1978 Space Invaders arcade game. His identity remains rigorously concealed — the anonymity is not incidental but structural, an integral part of the work's meaning and its market mystique. Named after the Taito Corporation's iconic game, Invader treats the world's cities as a single global canvas, each installation a tile-based creature adhered to a building facade, a bridge, an underpass, a museum exterior — anywhere the public gaze might fall, and many places it is unlikely to.
The scope of the project is genuinely remarkable. Invader has completed invasions in more than eighty cities across more than thirty countries, installing over four thousand individual works in locations from Paris, London, New York, Tokyo, and Los Angeles to Kathmandu, Hong Kong, and beyond. Each city invasion is documented in a limited-edition artist book — the Invasion Guides — which function simultaneously as artworks, catalogues, and maps. The Flash Invaders mobile application allows enthusiasts to locate and photograph his works in the field, converting the invasion into a participatory urban game. This ecosystem of books, maps, and digital tools has built an unusually engaged and knowledgeable collector community around his practice.
The range of Invader's output includes ceramic tile mosaics installed in situ (photographed and sometimes deaccessioned), canvas mosaics produced for the gallery market, prints, and multiples. His work has appeared at Christie's, Sotheby's, Phillips, and Bonhams, where canvas mosaics and major works command five-figure and above results. His print editions and multiples — often created in small, controlled runs — are actively traded by collectors who engage with the full breadth of his output. Series include Space Invaders, Aladdin Sane, the Alert System, and Rubik Cube works deploying the pixelated aesthetic of the source game across an expanding range of subjects and references. His anonymity sustains a market dynamic in which scarcity and mystique compound one another: there is no studio to visit, no social media presence, no commercial gallery partner. What exists is the work itself, the documentation, and the global community of those who seek it out.
Invader has exhibited at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris and MOCA Los Angeles, receiving institutional recognition that underscores the seriousness with which the art world regards his project beyond its street-art origins.
Guy Hepner represents Invader editions and multiples from our gallery at 177 Tenth Avenue, New York. We offer collectors authenticated works with full documentation, expert guidance on valuation, and access to a broad network of buyers and sellers active in this market. For those wishing to buy or sell Invader works, or seeking a free valuation of works in their collection, we are well placed to assist.