ABDELKADER BENCHAMMA | BOOK OF MIRACLES - VANISHING TREES

Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde, Dubai

Abdelkader Benchamma (b. 1975, France) studied at the Fine Art at Ecole Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris.

He imposes constraints upon his process to create delicately executed, dynamic drawings and murals. Shiftings of reality, intrusion of the invisible, indeterminate matters undergoing transformation, minuscule catastrophes are all at the heart of Benchamma’s work. 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.

Benchamma’s ongoing Book of Miracles series assumes the form of highly detailed and meticulously executed

drawings, reflecting on the challenges of a process with one overarching constraint: creating a colourful drawing utilising only black or dark tones. Finding inspiration in Chinese scroll works from the 18^th century, these works echo ethereal scenography of trees, where biomorphic, natural elements intermingle with both unidentifiable and abstracted forms. Benchamma takes cues from the 17^th century Book of Miracles, delving into supernatural apparitions, mythologies, and cosmic observations. He conjures otherworldly landscapes and subconscious visions filled with trees and shrubs, suggesting the cycle of life and nature of transformation, rebirth, and renewal. Benchamma also references hoax ‘new-age’ miracles he finds circulating on the internet. With the use of photo manipulation techniques, visuals from the natural world are reworked by people so to spell the name of Allah or verses from the Quran onto the branches of trees or to be discernible in the reflective surfaces of water. This phenomenon, according to the artist, is driven by a need to project spiritual qualities onto nature. Amalgamating a variety of artistic references and techniques, Benchamma composes these drawings through intricate gestures derived from the cerebral and explosive swashes of ink that hover between the natural and unnatural world.

Benchamma has an upcoming exhibition at the Power Plant in Toronto in 2021 and has gained prominence from institutional solo exhibitions at Musee Regional d’Art Contemporain (MRAC), Sérignan (2019) and Le Centquatre-Paris, Paris (2018). Impressively, for his U.S. debut, Benchamma created an astronomical vortex in the strikingly graphic large-scale drawing, Representation of Dark Matter (2015) at the Drawing Centre in New York.

His works and murals have been part of several reputable international exhibitions such as the Sharjah Biennale, Sharjah (2017); the Boghossian Foundation, Brussels (2018 and 2013); Louis Vuitton Foundation, Paris (2013) and the inaugural exhibition at Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha (2010).

He was also resident and laureate of the Villa Medicis (2018-219) and recipient of the Drawing Now Prize in Paris (2015).

Benchamma lives and works between Paris and Montpellier.