Jean-Luc's portraits are a metamorphosis of both creation and destruction, the result of meticulous attention to unintentional and deliberate action, created through layering multiple paintings on top of each other before scratching away at the surface to reveal phantom like faces from beneath. Created through damage and repair, he sees paint as a vulnerable skin hovering and clinging to the subject, masking the identity of the subject.

“I am interested in the transformations that can take place when I am no longer a slave to the image and the painting becomes about paint and surface.”

Jean-Luc's paintings have won various awards, including the winner of The Cass Art Commission of the National Open Art Competition, Somerset House (2014) and The Best Painting Prize at the ‘Injustice’ Open Art Competition, La Galleria, Pall Mall, 2014, judged by esteemed art critic, Edward Lucie Smith. In 2015 he was featured as a Saatchi Art 'One to Watch' and in 'the Best of 2015' and '20 Emerging Artists to Buy Now' Collections on Saatchi Art's homepage.

His work is exhibited internationally. Recent exhibitions include Start Art Fair, Saatchi Gallery, 2017, SCOPE Basel, Switzerland, June 2017 and The London Art Fair 2019.

Jean, born 1990 in DR Congo, studied his degree in Painting at City and Guilds, London Art School

"Swept" Original painting by Jean-Luc Almond