Jinks Kunst - BEN IN THE CITY (SKATE)

Born in 1976 in Vevey, Switzerland, Jinks Kunst is a Franco-Swiss street artist based in Nantes, where he lives and works. His universe takes root in adolescence deeply marked by hip-hop culture and the raw energy of skating. Through magazines, fanzines, and album sleeves, he discovers graffiti and illustration at a very young age. Initially drawn to graffiti lettering, he gradually broadens his practice, fed by experimentation and the field. Over the years, his work has taken on multiple forms: collages of paintings done on paper, stickers, murals, and subversions of traffic signs. He uses a wide range of supports, from walls to urban signs, but also wood, skateboard decks, or vinyl records. From the early 2000s, his works have been regularly exhibited in France and abroad. They enter private collections and appear in many international books dedicated to street art, testifying to a journey already firmly rooted in the contemporary urban scene. For Jinks Kunst, the street is not just a place of exhibition: it is a necessity. His work is written as a living trace there, and his stencils, posters, stickers, and paintings are today found in 44 countries, across Europe, Africa, Asia, and South America. These journeys are always accompanied by the same approach: walking long distances, observing, looking for the right walls, the right signs, the right spots. But they are above all opportunities for meaningful encounters with local populations and local artists. In this approach, urban art becomes a tool of social bonding and a means to act concretely. Jinks Kunst regularly engages in volunteer work, with audiences having little or no access to this form of cultural expression. In shantytowns, refugee camps, working-class neighborhoods, or schools, he organizes stencil-making workshops, sharing his know-how as a bridge between cultures and realities. The year 2006 marks a decisive turning point: he discovers stencils, which immediately become a revelation and a lasting passion. His work is distinguished by entirely handmade fabrication. Armed with a utility knife, he cuts with extreme precision, for hours, photos or drawings of his characters. His inspiration is broad and free, drawing on current events, politics, literature, urban cultures, or the animal world. In January 2008, he initiated in Nantes a series of détournements of traffic signs, a practice that quickly became emblematic of his work and which he continued in many countries thereafter. His career is punctuated by notable projects. In 2015, he painted several pieces in the Sidi Moumen slum in Casablanca, Morocco, in collaboration with the association Street Art Sans Frontière. The following year, he joined the Prasad project of the Art Lab association in Kathmandu, Nepal, which organizes street art workshops. To close the event in Beni, he created a monumental mural tribute to Mahabir Pun, a Nepalese teacher known for installing wifi in the Himalayas’ remote areas. This work takes the form of a 2.5 by 4.3 meter portrait. In 2017, as part of the Cambodia Urban Art festival in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, he created a work in homage to the Xavier de Lauzanne film Les Pépites, shot in that same city. This project allowed him to meet the director, interested in his approach and world. In 2019, he organized the volunteer project “Alibi” in collaboration with several local organizations. With Solid’Art International, he worked in Iraqi Kurdistan and in various refugee camps: Chatila in Beirut, then Marj and Bar Elias in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon. The project aimed to paint with the local population, but especially beside the refugees, giving rise to intense and deeply humane moments of collective creation. Alongside his field actions, his work continues to establish itself in major art events. In 2021, he was among the 76 artists selected from 2,300 applicants to participate in the Paris Graffiti and Street Art Prize 2021. In 2022, he took part, with 25 artists, in the exhibition “Road Map” organized by Colors Festival in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés district. In 2023, he participated in the Secours populaire’s contemporary art fair “Solid’Art” at the Carreau du Temple, a solidarity event mobilizing artists to support the association’s actions. The same year, he donated 11 works to the CHU de Nantes endowment fund, intended for a charity auction aimed at financing projects related to health, sport, research, inclusion, and art. The year 2024 marks an important milestone with a new solo exhibition at La Graffiti Compagnie du Pouliguen, confirming a lasting link with this expression venue. He also participated in several major group exhibitions, notably at Colors Festival in Tours and at the solidarity event C’est de la bombe at Empreinte Galerie d’Orléans. His work travels to the Baart Gallery in Bari, Italy, to Une Vision Singulière gallery in Hénon, to Shack in Paris, and to Shake Art Festival in Saint-Brieuc, a must-attend rendezvous on the urban scene. In 2025, his artistic activity intensifies significantly. He presents three solo exhibitions, at Galerie Morphose and New Eye in Nantes, and at Undercover in Saint-Nazaire. In parallel, he participates in several engaged collective projects, including Art for Gaza at Sanctuary Gallery in the United Kingdom, Faites vos jeux in Orléans, and an exhibition at the Musée Collection Bien Jouet. He also renews his presence at Colors Festival in Tours, at Baart Gallery in Italy, and at La Graffiti Compagnie for the exhibition Y a pas de mâle!. On the ground, that same year is punctuated by major international interventions. Jinks Kunst participates notably in the first Meeting of Styles in Yeumbeul, Senegal, the Zagreb Street Art Festival in Croatia, and the Paste Up Festival in Grenoble. Invited by the Institut Français to Vientiane, Laos, as part of the Cycle Patrimoine program, he continues his artistic exploration around the world. In France, he works on emblematic sites, such as Le Corbusier’s Maison Radieuse in Rezé for its seventieth anniversary, participates in the Collège fou fou fou project in Ille-et-Vilaine, and shines during the jam DKA / D77 in Paris. Between social engagement, travel, urban interventions, and exhibitions, Jinks Kunst builds a unique, demanding, and deeply humane body of work. His approach, rooted in the street but open to the world, transforms walls and urban signs into spaces of narration, memory, and dialogue, inviting further exploration of his universe beyond each encountered work.