Hervé Di Rosa, born in Sète in 1959, is a leading artist of Figuration Libre, a movement he co-founded in 1981. His world, inspired by comic strips, advertising and popular culture, is distinguished by vivid colours and emblematic characters such as the “Renés”. An artistic explorer, he works across numerous techniques – painting, sculpture, ceramics, tapestry and animation – creating works around the world while incorporating local craftsmanship. A champion of “Art Modeste”, he founded the MIAM (International Museum of Modest Arts) in Sète in 2000. His work, exhibited internationally, was the subject of a retrospective at the Centre Pompidou in 2024 and is presented at the Mucem until 1 September 2025. In 2024, he joined the Painting Section of the Académie des Beaux-Arts.

A marginal painter and a painter of marginality, he diversified his artistic approaches through his stages Around the World. Hervé Di Rosa does not travel to get somewhere, but to create works on site using local cultures and modes of expression, which have taken him to Tunisia, Bulgaria, Ghana, Benin, Ethiopia, Vietnam, South Africa, Corsica, Cuba, Mexico, the United States, Cameroon and Israel… Without claiming any particular style, yet developing a narrative universe entirely his own, populated by recurring characters, he has practised every creative technique: painting, sculpture, comic strips, tapestry, printmaking, fresco, lacquer, repoussé silver, ceramics, animation and digital imagery, among others. He is also the author or subject of more than 150 art books and publications between 1978 and 2019.