Interview with Jean-Pierre Sergent (artist) & Hector Lagos (journalist)

In this intimate and wide-ranging conversation from the Rising from the Ashes series, Hector Lagos interviews internationally exhibiting French artist Jean-Pierre Sergent, exploring the human story behind his prolific career. Born in Morteau in 1958, Sergent reflects on a childhood marked by severe asthma, which pushed him toward imagination, drawing, and eventually painting as a way to escape suffering. He traces his artistic path from the Strasbourg School of Architecture to the Fine Arts School in Besançon, and later to bold moves abroad, first to Montreal, then to New York, where he lived for over a decade and developed his artistic identity.

Sergent discusses his use of plexiglas and silkscreen printing, his fascination with universal energies, eroticism, and spirituality, and the influence of American abstraction and global ancestral cultures on his work. He speaks candidly about the challenges artists face today, the decline of cultural engagement, and the stark contrast between the support he found in North America and the difficulties of sustaining an artistic life in France.

The interview touches on resilience, freedom, personal loss, and the loneliness of the artistic path, but also on the joy, passion, and “vital energy” that keep Sergent creating an ongoing effort to honor life, spirit, and artistic truth.

Further information about Jean-Pierre Sergent can be found on his news page.