Jinks Kunst (1976) - Jordan

Jinks Kunst is a Franco-Swiss urban artist born in 1976. He lives and works in Nantes. His adolescence was marked by hip-hop culture and that of skateboarding. Magazines, fanzines, record covers lead him to discover the graffiti and illustrations of artists like Lazoo or Mode 2. He first tried graffiti lettering, and over the years his practice became multidisciplinary: collage of posters and stickers, painting, land art, photography, diversion of road signs. He works on different media: walls, wood, skateboard decks, vinyl records, etc. In 2006, he launched into stencil. It is a real revelation and a devouring passion that never leaves him. These creations are all handmade. Thus, armed with a cutter, he meticulously chisels for hours life-size works inspired by current events, politics, literature, urban cultures or even animal life. In January 2008, he began to hijack traffic signs in Nantes, then in the rest of the world. Regularly exhibited since the early 2000s, in France and abroad, his works are also present in various private collections, and reproduced in several international works devoted to street art. Intervening in the streets of the globe is a necessity for Jinks Kunst. His stencils, posters, stickers, paintings are visible on the walls and signs of more than 30 countries in Europe, Africa, Asia, and South America. These trips are always the occasion for long walks to discover the right walls, the right signs. They are rich in encounters with local populations. For Jinks Kunst, urban art is a way to create links with the inhabitants of the countries he explores, to engage in actions (often voluntary) with audiences (slums, refugee camps, working-class neighborhoods, schools ) having little or no access to this form of cultural expression, in particular by organizing stencil creation workshops. To date, Jinks Kunst has produced several hundred stencils and paintings, hijacked with humour, more than a thousand road signs in 28 countries, customized dozens of skateboard decks and vinyl records and produced a portrait of Serge Gainsbourg at the using 23,000 cigarette filters. In 2021, Jinks is one of 76 artists selected from 2,300 candidates to participate in the 2021 Paris Graffiti and Street Art Prize. Jinks participates in many actions such as: - The realization of a painting in the shantytown of Sidi Moumen in Casablanca (Morocco) which represents a scene of Moroccan life. - Collaboration in the Prasad project of the Art Lab association in Kathmandu (Nepal), which organizes street art workshops. A fresco, a tribute to Mahabir Pun (a Nepalese teacher recognized for his work installing wifi in remote areas of the Himalayas) closed the event in Beni (Nepal). This is an opportunity for Jinks to make a portrait of 2.5 x 4.3m. - Organization of the “Djiguene & Goor” volunteer project in Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast and Benin. - Participation in the Strokar exhibition organized by Fred Atax, at the Vandeborght space in Brussels, alongside Jonone, Kasink, Levalet, Jérome Mesnager, Jef Aérosol... - The exhibition of his work at studio 49 in Geneva with Andy Warhol, Taki 183, T-kid, Banksy, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Cope2, Blek Le Rat, Os Gemeos... followed by an auction at the Hôtel des Ventes Galartis in Lausanne. - The creation, within the framework of the Cambodia Urban Art festival in Phnom Penh (Cambodia), of a work in homage to the film "Les pépites" by Xavier de Lauzanne, which was shot in this same city. There he meets the director interested in his work. - Organization of the volunteer project "Alibi" in 2019 in Iraqi Kurdistan and in the refugee camps (Chatila, Bar Elias...) in Lebanon.