Abdelkader Benchamma
The artist
Born in 1975 in Mazamet (France), Abdelkader Benchamma lives and works in Paris and Montpellier. Benchamma chooses to work in a sole medium: drawings. He adopts different approaches to the drawing process, sometimes moving across a sheet of paper with the meticulous strokes of an engraver, sometimes spreading over a wall with lavish gestures that appropriate the space. The matter escapes from the frame in a form of organic growth. Inspired by literature, philosophy, astrophysics and esoteric reflections, his works create visual scenarios that question our relationship to reality as they probe the frontiers of the invisible.
Exhibitions
-
Cosmography
June 27 - August 1, 2024
New York -
Cosma
January 7 - March 18, 2023
Paris - Beaubourg -
Signes
September 3 - October 24, 2020
Brussels -
From the Paper to the Wall
June 6 - July 26, 2019
Brussels -
Engramme
March 16 - May 19, 2019
Paris - Beaubourg
Biography
| Birth | Born in 1975 in Mazamet, France |
|---|---|
| Residence | Lives and works in Montpellier and Paris, France |
| Education | 2003 - École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts, Paris, France 2000 - École Supérieure des Beaux Arts, Montpellier, France |
SOLO SHOWS (SELECTION)
| 2024 | Het Noordbrabants Museum (HNBM), Den Bosch, Netherlands |
|---|---|
| 2023 | Solastagia: Archaeologies of Loss, The Power Plant, Toronto, Canada Œuvre croisée, Librairie des Colonnes, Tangier, Marocco Géologie des déluges, Fondation François Schneider, Wattwiller, France COSMA, Templon, Paris, France |
| 2022 | Abdelkader Benchamma, Sant’Euno Church, in collaboration with Palazzo Butera and FIAF, Palermo, Italy Abdelkader Benchamma, solo show at Galerie Templon’s booth, Art Brussels 2022, Brussels Expo, Brussels, Belgium |
| 2021 | Rayon fossile, Collection Lambert, Avignon, France Echoes, Rupture et Associés, Paris, France |
| 2020 | Signes, Galerie Templon, Bruxelles, Belgium |
| 2019 | Symetrie et soupirs, In Situ : Art Contemporain et Patrimoine, Abbaye de Lagrasse, Lagrasse, France Abdelkader Benchamma : Fata Bromosa, MRAC, Sérignan, France Engramme, Galerie Templon, Paris, France Rumeur des cercles, Galerie les Chantiers Boite Noire, Montpellier, France Un artiste, une œuvre, Fondation Hélénis special commission, Montpellier, France |
| 2018 | L’horizon des évènements, CENTQUATRE-Paris, France Echos de la Naissance des Mondes, Collège des Bernardins, on the occasion of the Nuit Blanche, curated by Gaël Charbau, Paris, France |
Voir plus
GROUP SHOWS (SELECTION)
| 2024 | Le jour des peintres, Musée d’Orsay, Paris Les lois de l’imaginaire, curated by Laure Forlay and Sophie Sizabuire, FRAC Auvergne in collaboration with the Musée d’Art et d’Archéologie, Aurillac, France |
|---|---|
| 2023 | Prendre le soleil, Hangar Y, Meudon, France Neither the sky nor the earth, Lago/Algo, Mexicó City, Mexico Metro ! Le Grand Paris en mouvement, Cité de l’architecture et du Patrimoine, Paris, France Histoire de Pierres, curated by Jean de Loisy, Villa Medici, Rome, Italy Constellations, Musée d’art moderne, Céret, France Immortelle, MO.CO., Montpellier, France |
| 2022 | Ce que nous avons perdu dans le feu, Villa Arson, Nice, France |
| 2021 | Comics Trip!, Collection Lambert, Avignon, France Un autre monde///Dans notre monde, Lieu commun, Espace d’art contemporain, Toulouse, France |
| 2020 | Un autre monde///Dans notre monde, FRAC Grand Large — Hauts-de-France, Dunkerque, France Artistes à la Une : Togeth’HER 2021, Monnaie de Paris, Paris, France |
| 2019 | Un autre monde/// Dans notre monde, Frac PACA, Marseille, France Eldorado - Lille 3000, Le Tripostal, Lille, France Syncopation, Pola Museum of Art, Hakone, Japan 100 artistes dans la ville, Montpellier, France Air, stone, water, X, Fondation Helenis, Montpellier, France |
| 2018 | Melancholia, Fondation Boghossian, Brussels, Belgium (Un)conscious: A series of small serendipities, Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde, Dubai, United Arab Emirates |
Voir plus
COLLECTIONS (SELECTION)
| Musée régional d’art contemporain, Sérignan, France | |
| FRAC Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, France | |
| MATHAF, Musée Arabe d’Art Moderne et Contemporain, Doha, Qatar | |
| FRAC Occitanie Montpellier, Montpellier, France | |
| DRAC Centre, Orléans, France | |
| FRAC Languedoc Roussillon, Montpellier, France | |
| Musée des Beaux Arts, Orléans, France |
Voir plus
RESIDENCIES (SELECTION)
| 2018 – 2019 | Villa Medicis, Roma, Italy |
|---|---|
| 2017 | Beirut Art Residency, Lebanon |
| 2016 | a.r.i.a Residency, Algiers, Algeria |
AWARDS
| 2024 | Finalist for the Marcel Duchamp prize, Paris, France |
|---|---|
| 2018 | Winner of the Occitanie-Médicis Price, France |
| 2015 | Winner of the Drawing Now Price, France Art Collector Price, France |
PROJECTS
| Grand Paris Express, Vitry centre, France |
Press Release
The Art Newspaper - january, 2024
Les nommés du Prix Marcel-Duchamp dévoilés
Le Quotidien de l'Art - january, 2024
Le prix Marcel Duchamp révèle ses 4 finalistes
François Salmeron
Canvas - January, 2024
Finalists for the Marcel Duchamp Prize 2024 Announced
Beaux Arts Paris - january, 2024
Abdelkader Benchamma, finaliste pour le Prix Marcel Duchamp 2024
Les Inrockuptibles - July, 2023
Les déluges sortent du cadre
Télérama - janvier 2023
La Chronique d'Olivier Céna
The Art Newspaper - janvier 2023
La Fondation François Schneider donne carte blanche à Abdelkader Benchamma
The Art Newspaper.fr - mars 2020
Le Grand Paris Express, laboratoire pour les artistes
Anne-Lys Thomas
Daily Art News Paper.fr - décembre 2019
Pour Abdelkader Benchamma, le dessin est une fin en soi
Sébastien Planas
Libération - octobre 2018
Nuit blanche à la belle étoile
La Croix - octobre 2018
Une plongée cosmique dans la nuit blanche
M le Magazine du Monde - avril 2018
Exploration souterraine
Art Absolument - juillet 2011
Le dessin comme archipel
News
Abdelkader Benchamma
RAYON FOSSILE – SOLO SHOW
Rayon Fossile
Collection Lambert, 5 Rue Violette, 84000 Avignon, France
October 29, 2021 through February 20, 2022
The Lambert Collection invites Abdelkader Benchamma to take over the entire first floor of the Hôtel de Montfaucon. Entitled ‘Rayon Fossile’, the exhibition is organized around an initiatory journey through possible worlds, past, imaginary, future, written or dreamed, assembled in a narrative that unfolds slowly in the rooms of the museum.
Abdelkader Benchamma
ECHOES – SOLO SHOW
Rupture et Associés
1 place André Malraux, Paris
From October 23 to November 27, 2021
Conceived as a total immersion in the universe of the artist, the exhibition will feature the artist’s latest works of ink on paper. The opportunity for us to admire the gesture of Abdelkader Benchamma and to unveil the mystery on his so-magnetic works.
Abdelkader Benchamma
UN AUTRE MONDE//DANS NOTRE MONDE – GROUP SHOW
Le Printemps de Septembre
25, rue d'armagnac, Toulouse
September 17 - October 17, 2021
This project, initiated at the galerie du jour agnès b. in 2016, has taken various forms, from a travelling group exhibition to a laboratory of epistemological experimentation. Through a selection of eclectic works, it highlights the precursory character of this editorial and artistic adventure as well as the ever-present relevance of its favorite themes.
Abdelkader Benchamma
Jim Dine
Jan Fabre
INAUGURATION DE LA FONDATION HELENIS GGL – GROUP SHOW
FONDATION HELENIS GGL, MONTPELLIER, FRANCE
Inauguration - November 2020
For its inauguration, the Helenis GGL Foundation in Montpellier is hosting four personalities from the contemporary art world: Abdelkader Benchamma, Jim Dine, Jan Fabre and Marlène Mocquet. Each of the four artists will present an artwork for the event – which will open the season in what aims to become one of the city’s major cultural centres.
Abdelkader Benchamma
UN AUTRE MONDE///DANS NOTRE MONDE – GROUP SHOW
From September 19, 2020 to March 14, 2021
FRAC Grand Large — Hauts-de-France, 503 Avenue des Bancs de Flandres, 59140 Dunkerque
Abdelkader Benchamma takes part in the exhibition « UN AUTRE MONDE/// DANS NOTRE MONDE » held at the FRAC Nord-pas de Calais.The exhibition proposes to discover the fantastic realism, a major movement of the counterculture of the 1960s, through the works of contemporary artists who question the dominant knowledge and hybridize scientific and esoteric knowledge. Extravagant, hermetic, sensual, the works summon the survival of traditional, mythical or magical cultures. They invite to probe the altered states of consciousness, the limits of our sensory perceptions, the hidden codes of nature and the undecipherable laws that govern the cosmos.
Abdelkader Benchamma
FATA BROMOSA – SOLO SHOW
MUSÉE RÉGIONAL D'ART CONTEMPORAIN OCCITANIE /PYRÉNÉES - MÉDITERRANÉE, SÉRIGNAN, FRANCEDu 23 /11/2019 au 20/09/2020
For his first solo exhibition in a French museum, Abdelkader Benchamma invests three rooms at Mrac Occitanie with an immersive installation drawing inspiration from his residence at Villa Médicis in autumn 2018. In Rome, Abdelkader Benchamma is fascinated by the richness of church decorations, in particular by the representation of marbles in the works of the Renaissance painter Fra Angelico. The Old Master’s depictions render the illusion of precious stones by playing on symmetry of veins, thus creating spiritually charged abstract forms. The title of the exhibition, Fata Bromosa, (literally Fairy of the Mists) refers to that blurring of perception dear to Fra Angelico. The term indicates an optical phenomenon observed by navigators in the Middle Ages which gives the impression of a bright-rimmed fog perceptible on the horizon. To depict without representing seems to be the artist’s ambition: drawing become an emanation of nature, but of a different kind, intimate and unfathomable.
Abdelkader Benchamma
SYNCOPATION, CONTEMPORARY ENCOUNTERS WITH THE MODERN MASTERS MONET, CéZANNE, PICASSO – GROUP SHOW
POLA MUSEUM OF ART, KANAGAWA, JAPONFrom 10/08/2019 to 01/12/2019
As our first full-fledged exhibition featuring contemporary art, Syncopation will present a wide range of works of art from the Pola Museum of Art collection, including paintings, sculptures, and Oriental ceramics, along with works by artists active on the front lines of contemporary expression. Here various works by contemporary artists, including installations filling entire rooms, sound art, video art, and a piece exhibited outdoors, are shedding new light on works by the modern masters, encouraging multifaceted interpretation.
Abdelkader Benchamma
SYMéTRIES ET SOUPIRS – SITE-SPECIFIC INSTALLATION
ABBAYE DE LAGRASSE, LAGRASSE, FRANCE From 26/06/2019 to 01/09/2019
The Lagrasse Abbey, located in the Corbières massif in the Orbieu Valley, is considered one of the most important Benedictine settlements in the Aude region.For IN SITU Patrimoine et art contemporain, Abdelkader Benchamma has made a large mural of nearly 40 square meters facing the Renaissance fireplace of the ceremonial hall of the Abbey.
