Né en 1956 à Agadir, Jacques Afriat a quitté le Maroc à l'âge de 17 ans pour faire ses études supérieures à Paris.
Il a toujours été attiré par le dessin, essentiellement le portrait.
Ses premières peintures ont été réalisées à la gouache sur papier en s'inspirant des grands classiques.
C'est assez tardivement qu'il se met à peindre sur toile.
Depuis mars 2003, il retrouve son inspiration dans des thèmes mettant en avant son identité orientale arrosée d'un vernis occidental.
He during his several years refined his technique of the portrait. Around 18 years, it takes the step while attacking painting on paper.
By reproducing romantic great painters, it improves his technique of the brush. His taste of the detail brings him closer the realistic painters but by keeping a certain distance the original: He gives him a more modern aspect by eliminating any useless context. The funds are not painted and contours of the characters are left at an "unfinished" stage. He waited 20 years before being put at work on toîle: support which deserved, according to him, a certain maturity.
Today, Jacques Afriat regularly produces paintings on toîle (and sometimes on paper) in varied formats: 70 cm X 90 cm, 80 cm X 100 cm or 130 cm X 195 cm. His first attempts on toîles remain faithful to the real image. On the other hand, He completes His creations by diluting the completions in coloured "tasks".
His paintings have an unquestionable presence. His interest for the movements (fantasias) and the scenes reflecting an exchange between characters (the Master and its pupil) or between a character and an object (the rabbi and the book) make of Jacques Afriat an artist who does not leave indifferent.