Jean Marc Calvet is a French artist living and working in Nicaragua. He is a legitimate self-taught artist, an outsider in every spirit of the word.
When you see a Jean Marc Calvet painting for the first time, it is easy to be seduced by the vibrant colors, the simple outline motifs and the pulsing energy that powers out of the canvas. It is only when you start to study the extraordinarily intricate details that you realize that there are much darker forces driving the creative engine.
His dramatic and desperate life up until the age of 37 was full of destructive and personal demons which came to a tumultuous low point when he decided to take his own life. However instead of death he found a large container of commercial house paint and art. His first works were crude explosions of his inner turmoil exploding on any surface that was close with any materials that would leave a trace. His salvation came from realizing instead of allowing the monsters in his life to wreak havoc on him personally, he was able to release them and imprison them on canvas.
Thirteen years on, Calvet delivers a marked sophistication in his works that adds clarity yet maintains the spirit of the true brut style that birthed him as an artist. His repertoire of colors continues to develop giving a richness that further enhances his work.
This amazing story of redemption has been captured in the feature documentary film “Calvet” directed by Dominic Allan for Firewalk Films.