Born in Toulouse in 1952, Jean-Marc Bustamante lives and works between Paris and Switzerland. He participated in documenta 8, 9 and 10 (1987, 1992, 1997) and represented France at the 50th Venice Biennale (2003). His work has been shown in numerous solo exhibitions, notably at the Musée d'Art moderne de Paris (1991); Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg (1994); Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume (1996), Paris; The Tate Gallery, London (1998); Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Germany (2004); Yokohama Museum of Art (2002); Kunsthaus Bregenz (2006); Musée d'Art Moderne de Strasbourg (2007); Musée des Arts Contemporains du Grand Hornu, Hornu, Belgium (2008); Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, United Kingdom (2011); and Villa Medici, Rome, Italy (2012).

He taught sculpture at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam from 1990 to 1995, painting at the Kunstakademie in Munich from 2009 to 2018, and was professor at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts in Paris from 1996 to 2018, a school he directed from 2015 to 2018.