Gainsbar, 2021

José Jover  

José Jover enters the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in 1975 through a competition. At the end of his studies, in 1981, he begins a professional artistic career that leads him to explore numerous fields of visual creation: comic books, illustration, painting, press drawing, and animation cinema.
His work is guided by the same narrative and plastic demand. Whether he expresses himself on canvas, paper, or in illustration, José Jover develops a universe where the human figure, expression, and color occupy a central place. In 1985, his paintings were exhibited at the Centre Georges-Pompidou as part of the Free Figuration movement, which he shares with the freedom of expression, graphic energy, and the taste for the mixing between popular culture and contemporary art.
In parallel with his painting work, he publishes numerous comic book albums at Glénat and Futuropolis, illustrates books for Hachette and Syros, and collaborates on reference titles such as , , , or . This diversity of practices nourishes a pictorial writing immediately recognizable, where drawing remains the foundation of the composition.
For more than twenty years, José Jover has also passed on his passion for image through workshops dedicated to graphic storytelling, organized in media libraries, local authorities, schools, hospitals, prisons, and auprès of large associations such as the French Red Cross.
In 1999, he founded Éditions Tartamudo, an independent publishing house dedicated to comic books, young literature, and committed narratives, while continuing his work as a painter.
Today, painting occupies an essential place in his creation. His work testifies to a deeply humanistic view where the strength of drawing, the freedom of gesture, and the narrative meet. Through his compositions, José Jover questions human relationships, memory, and social issues with a sensitivity that makes engagement, emotion, and imagination dialogue.