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.
GROUP SHOW - Ce que nous avons perdu dans le feu
An exhibition imagined by Lola Gonzàlez at the invitation of Éric Mangion.
"Winter 2020, there is the discovery of the universe of Mariana Enriquez, a slap. The title of her book haunts me "What we lost in the fire".
November 2021, I have just finished her latest novel "Our share of the night", I am stunned and deeply touched by the power of her writing. So I borrowed her words for the title of this collective exhibition, a way for me to invite Mariana among us and a way for me to invite Mariana among us and to pay her a tribute.
Villa Arson, Nice
From February 5 to April 17, 2022
Rayon Fossile - solo show
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.
Rayon Fossile
Collection Lambert, 5 Rue Violette, 84000 Avignon, France
October 29, 2021 through February 20, 2022
ECHOES - solo show
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.
Rupture et Associés
1 place André Malraux, Paris
From October 23 to November 27, 2021
UN AUTRE MONDE//DANS NOTRE MONDE - group show
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.
Le Printemps de Septembre
25, rue d'armagnac, Toulouse
September 17 - October 17, 2021
Inauguration de la Fondation Helenis GGL - Group show
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.
FONDATION HELENIS GGL, MONTPELLIER, FRANCE
Inauguration - November 2020
UN AUTRE MONDE///DANS NOTRE MONDE – group show
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.
From September 19, 2020 to March 14, 2021
FRAC Grand Large — Hauts-de-France, 503 Avenue des Bancs de Flandres, 59140 Dunkerque
Fata Bromosa - Solo show
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.
MUSÉE RÉGIONAL D'ART CONTEMPORAIN OCCITANIE /PYRÉNÉES - MÉDITERRANÉE, SÉRIGNAN, FRANCE
Du 23 /11/2019 au 20/09/2020
Syncopation, contemporary encounters with the Modern Masters Monet, Cézanne, Picasso - Group show
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.
POLA MUSEUM OF ART, KANAGAWA, JAPON
From 10/08/2019 to 01/12/2019
Symétries et Soupirs - Site-specific installation
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.
ABBAYE DE LAGRASSE, LAGRASSE, FRANCE
From 26/06/2019 to 01/09/2019
« 100 artistes dans la ville » - Cosma - Public art commission
At the invitation of Nicolas Bourriaud, director of the MOCO Collection Hotel in Montpellier, Abdelkader Benchamma has created a permanent installation in the public space of the city as part of the "100 artists in the city" program. The Cosma installation is made from incrustations of marble slabs and is completed with paintings. The title refers to the art of marble mosaic pavements developed by the Cosmati between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries in Rome.
MONTPELLIER, FRANCE
From 08/06/2019 to 28/07/2019
Eldorama, Lille 3000 - Group show
The Tripostal unfolds the great Eldorado story through a myriad of contemporary works of art borrowed from all over the world. In three chapters, corresponding to the three floors of the building: 1. The dreamed worlds, 2. The rush, 3. An endless Eldorado, the exhibition stages the universal adventure of all the eldorados who spur individuals and people to move
and relocate.
Curators: Jérôme Sans, Jean-Max Colard, with the collaboration of Isabelle Bernini.
TRIPOSTAL, LILLE, FRANCE
From 27/04/2019 to 01/10/2019
UN AUTRE MONDE///DANS NOTRE MONDE - Group show
UN AUTRE MONDE///DANS NOTRE MONDE is questioning our relationship with the real world through many sectors of creation and knowledge, on the frontiers of science, tradition, fantasy, sciencefiction and ultimately of the real. UN AUTRE MONDE///DANS NOTRE MONDE is a hybrid event between the itinerant collective exhibition, the symposium and the epistemological experimental laboratory.
FRAC PACA, MARSEILLES, FRANCE
From 23/03/2019 to 02/06/2019
