
Jean-Baptiste Launay – known with the art name of Jisbar (born in France in 1989) – is one of the leading figures of the modern street and pop art generation.
Jisbar has exhibited in a large number of galleries around the world and in prestigious museums such as the Manarat Al Saadiyat in Abu Dhabi, the National Museum of Immigration’s History in Paris, the Museum of Art & History in Santa Cruz California, the Technology and Maritime Museum in Malmo (Sweden) and the Postcard Museum in Bau (France). Jisbar’s works of art, a mix of reality and fiction, offer a particular and different perspective of the outside world.
In 2019 Jisbar was the first artist to launch a work of art in space: his street art version of Mona Lisa traveled in orbit around the Earth and then landed in the north of the United Kingdom.
Jisbar likes to say that each of his works of art represents “life moments”, like a memory that is immortalized in a photo album.
We had the pleasure of doing an interesting interview to find out more about his work, his personality and his world!
1) When, how and why did you become an artist?
I started painting when I was young, my mother had painting supplies at home, I was a child, I must have been 8/9 years old and I tried painting when she was not looking. I immediately felt in love with this language which is for me more complete than the simple word.
2) What were the most important moments in your artistic career?
The first time I exhibited my work abroad, in the USA several years ago. It was amazing to think that I am traveling because I have an art exhibition abroad. Also the first time that a museum call me to exhibit my work, in 2015 i think, it was totally crazy because the president of the french republic at the time, Francois Hollande, came to visit the exhibition.
And my collaboration with Ducati, which is a huge brand and with whom we have worked in close collaboration for a charity auction
3) What is your style?
I prefer to say that I am a painter, put the artist in a box puts them invisible barriers in their heads.