“My work is nourished by the tensions of the world; injustices, human conditions, and what remains beneath the surface. I express only a small part of what lies within me. Drawing, born from observation, has led me to explore a multitude of techniques and supports, in search of the most accurate form or process. Through matter and gesture, I seek to let a contained emotion, a silent presence, a trace of what moves through the human condition, come to the surface.”
Nasreddine Bennacer
Born in Guélma , Algeria
lives and works in Paris, France
Nasreddine Bennacer, born in 1967 in Guelma, Algeria, is a Franco-Algerian artist whose multifaceted practice spans sculpture, painting on plexiglass, installation, drawing and works on paper. His work explores notions of culture, civilisation, identity and displacement, questioning the ways in which individual and collective narratives are constructed, displaced or transformed. His early works, marked by critical sensitivity and a form of irony, examine mechanisms of domination and the absurd rationality of the contemporary world. Over time, his practice has evolved towards a more refined and poetic expression, attentive to gesture, matter and forms of appearance.
Drawing remains central to his practice. His recent works on Japanese paper, oscillating between abstraction and figuration, emerge from a dialogue between support, material and gesture, leaving significant room for the unexpected. They move away from demonstration in order to bring forth memories, impressions and silent presences.
His work has been presented in several major institutional contexts, including the Palais de Tokyo in Paris during the Art & Care auction in 2015, the Musée des Beaux-Arts and the Palais de l’Europe in Menton in 2016, the Boghossian Foundation / Villa Empain in Brussels in Beyond Borders in 2018, as well as Mathaf, Museum of Modern Art in Doha, in Cities under Quarantine: The Mailbox Project in 2023. In 2025, he takes part in This Body is not mine, nor is the world, curated by Alicia Knock, as part of the Paris Noir circuit, in connection with the Centre Pompidou.
He has also participated in international events such as Manifesta 12 – Arts & Globalization in Palermo in 2018, Survival Kit 10 in Riga the same year, Art Dubai in 2022, Art Paris Art Fair at the Grand Palais in 2013 and 2017, as well as India Art Fair in New Delhi, Art Stage Singapore, Scope Basel, Art 14 and Art 15 London. His solo exhibitions have notably been presented at the European Investment Bank in Luxembourg in 2005, 2009 and 2019, at the European Commission in Luxembourg in 2007, and at the Agence Française de Développement in Paris in 2003.