"One day I started to draw the people I met. It just took me over. There must have been a reason. But what? ... It doesn't matter. I felt the need to do it and I did it. That's all. I honestly thought it would pass. But it didn't. It became an obsession. Like a botanist who can't stop studying an unknown flower on his way. Over the years, all these faces have become the logbook of my life. A logbook overflowing with soul and love where I sought only one thing, to feel these people for what they really are: unique. "
"The portraits from Face Book were all made in the moment, freehand, with Indian ink, in order to capture the flash of the encounter. All this with the bare minimum: a notebook and a black ink pen. This constraint always pushes me to touch the essence of the person drawn but also to experiment in order to express the diversity of the energies I encounter. When I portraitiseI forget myself and disappear, I am only a satellite that receives the vibrations and retranscribes them - similar to the needles of a seismographic device. To accompany the release of the book, which will take place on 3 December 2020I have selected about twenty portraits from " Face Book "which I reinterpreted with the woodcutting techniques. These prints, printed on pure cotton paper in a limited edition, will be presented in an exhibition at the event.
Born in Paris on April 16, 1990, he started drawing at the age of 5. He drew his first comics at the age of 8 and gradually developed a passion for calligraphy then the portrait. At the Lycée Claude Monet, he "avoided" art classes for three years and at the age of 16/17 began his first concerts, recordings and film shoots as an actor.
It was during a shoot in Ecuador in the Amazonian forest that he began to take portraits during the long hours of waiting that the shoot imposed. The idea of FACE BOOK is taking shape: a travel diary which captures encounters, a face, its history, its energy. With his "Kunst & Papier" notebook and his Pentel calligraphy pen, JK develops this practice of portraiture as a way of life, of meeting and sharing to probe the human soul. He understands that this will be the project of his life.
Ten years later, he has collected almost 400 portraits, all made during his travels, always in the same format and with the same calligraphy pen, in black and white, Indian ink. The edition of the first volume of Face Book is then considered alongside the 4 Colours Association whose artist is ambassador. Through this unique project, JK expresses in its own way freedom, adventure, independence and offers us a vibrant look at the human being.