JM Robert

JM Robert began painting at a very young age, inspired by the patinas, stains, and deterioration he observed on building facades. After studying graphic and decorative arts, where he learned professional trompe-l’œil techniques, he developed his pictorial approach influenced by urban art and late 20th-century painters.

Over time, he created a distinctive style characterized by sharp, stencil-like portraits set against abstract backgrounds that echo the worn and fragmented textures of city walls. Fascinated by ruins and degraded surfaces, Robert recreates these effects through layered materials, scraping, and textured techniques that evoke the passage of time.

His work unfolds in two stages: first, he constructs backgrounds resembling aged, crumbling walls through layers of color that spread unpredictably across cracks and textures. Then, a fleeting face emerges, almost dissolving into the surface — a fragile, anonymous presence, often feminine, like the fleeting shadow of a passing figure.

Through this tension between destruction and appearance, Robert explores his own aesthetic of ruin, where color and drawing struggle to form a portrait, reflecting the fragmentation and instability of our contemporary world.