ABDELKADER BENCHAMMA

French-Algerian artist, Abdelkader Benchamma (b. 1975, Mazamet, France) studied at the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

His practice spans finely wrought, engraver-like drawings and sweeping, site-specific wall works. Drawing inspiration from literature, philosophy, astrophysics, and Eastern thought, his works challenge conventional perceptions of space and time. He invites viewers to not simply look at his art, but to sense it—to navigate strata, folds, cracks, and voids, and enter into dimensions beyond the material and the real.

His major recent solo exhibitions include Landscape of the Fall at Het Noordbrabants Museum (HNBM), ’s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands (2024); Solastalgia: Archaeologies of Loss at The Power Plant, Toronto (2023); Géologie des déluges at Fondation François Schneider, Wattwiller, France (2023); and Ni el cielo ni la tierra at Lago Algo, Mexico City (2023) among others. Previous significant presentations include exhibitions at Collection Lambert, Avignon (2020); Le Centquatre, Paris (2018); The Drawing Center, New York (2015); and Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha (2010). 

Benchamma was nominated for the Prix Marcel Duchamp (2024) and awarded the Occitanie-Médicis Prize (2018).

In the Gulf, he is recognized for Neither the Sky nor the Earth, presented at Sharjah Biennial 13 (2017), and Between Each Sky, commissioned for the second Islamic Arts Biennale, Jeddah (2025). His work is held in public collections such as the FRAC Languedoc-Roussillon, the Musée des Beaux-Arts d’Orléans, France, and Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha.