Biography

Born in 1976 in Vevey, Switzerland, Jinks Kunst is a Franco-Swiss street artist based in Nantes, where he lives and works. His artistic world is rooted in an adolescence deeply shaped by hip-hop culture and the raw energy of skateboarding. Through magazines, fanzines, and album covers, he discovered graffiti and illustration at an early age. Initially drawn to graffiti lettering, he gradually expanded his practice, fueled by experimentation and hands-on experience in the field.

Over the years, his work has taken on diverse forms: collages of paper-based paintings, stickers, murals, and the creative repurposing of road signs. He works on a wide variety of surfaces—ranging from walls and urban signage to wood, skateboard decks, and vinyl records. Since the early 2000s, his work has been regularly exhibited in France and abroad. His pieces are held in numerous private collections and have appeared in many international books on street art, reflecting a career firmly established within the contemporary urban art scene.

For Jinks Kunst, the street is not merely an exhibition space; it is a necessity. His work leaves a living mark on the urban landscape, and his stencils, posters, stickers, and paintings can now be found in 44 countries across Europe, Africa, Asia, and South America. These travels are always driven by the same process: walking extensively, observing, and scouting for the right walls, signs, and locations. Above all, however, they offer opportunities for meaningful encounters with local communities and artists. In this context, urban art becomes a tool for social connection and a means of taking concrete action. Jinks Kunst frequently engages in volunteer work with communities that have little or no access to this form of cultural expression. In shantytowns, refugee camps, working-class neighborhoods, and schools, he organizes stencil-making workshops, sharing his expertise as a bridge between cultures and realities.

The year 2006 marked a turning point: he discovered stenciling, which immediately became a revelation and an enduring passion. His work is distinguished by its entirely handmade nature. Armed with a craft knife, he spends hours cutting out photographs or his own character drawings with extreme precision. His inspiration is broad and free-ranging, drawing from current events, politics, literature, urban culture, and the animal world alike. In January 2008, he launched a series of road sign interventions in Nantes—a practice that would quickly become emblematic of his work and which he subsequently continued in many other countries.

His career has been marked by significant projects. In 2015, he created several paintings in the Sidi Moumen shantytown in Casablanca, Morocco, in collaboration with the association Street Art Sans Frontière. The following year, he joined the Prasad project—run by the Art Lab association in Kathmandu, Nepal—which organizes street art workshops. To conclude the event in Beni, he created a mural paying tribute to Mahabir Pun, a Nepalese teacher renowned for his work installing Wi-Fi in remote Himalayan areas. The piece took the form of a monumental portrait measuring 2.5 by 4.3 meters.

In 2017, as part of the Cambodia Urban Art festival in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, he created a work paying tribute to the film Les Pépites by Xavier de Lauzanne, which had been shot in the same city. This project led to a meeting with the director, who was interested in his artistic approach and creative world. In 2019, he organized the volunteer-led "Alibi" project in collaboration with several local organizations. Working with the association Solid’Art International, he carries out projects in Iraqi Kurdistan and various refugee camps—including Shatila in Beirut, followed by Marj and Bar Elias in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley. The initiative focuses on painting with the local population—and above all alongside the refugees—fostering moments of collective creativity that are both intense and deeply human.

Alongside his fieldwork, his work continues to gain prominence at major art events. In 2021, he was one of 76 artists selected from 2,300 applicants to participate in the Paris Graffiti and Street Art Prize. In 2022, he joined 25 other artists for the "Road Map" exhibition organized by the Colors Festival in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés district. In 2023, he took part in the Secours Populaire’s "Solid’Art" contemporary art fair at the Carreau du Temple—a charitable event mobilizing artists to support the association’s initiatives. That same year, he donated 11 artworks to the Nantes University Hospital (CHU) endowment fund for an auction aimed at raising money to finance health-related projects.