Manuel Fernandez, aka KiKo, is a French artist born in 1985 in
Martigues, in this town near Marseille nicknamed the
“Provençal Venice” which inspires its Mediterranean colors and
more particularly this burning orange which floods many of its
works.
KiKo has always had a taste for drawing. As a child, it is said of him that he
draws like he breathes. With a single assertive stroke, he sketches the
emotions that they do not express with words. School doesn't excite him
only in visual arts classes and his path therefore seems clear-cut. But
art is not a subject in this family of sailors who firstly have the
passion for the sea and especially for tuna fishing. From its most
young age, KiKo therefore joins the family tuna boats, giants of the seas
30m long moored in Port-Vendres, leaving his pencils for
fishing nets; we don't leave the ship like that! Older, he
will go to sea for many months tracking down schools of colonized fish
by tuna. There he learns discipline, fear management,
resilience, teamwork, lack of sleep and loneliness. For
escape from this harsh life of sailors where the sea constantly reminds him
order, KiKo constructs an imaginary universe where the childhood which there
suspends its flight will inspire all of his work.