Sami Benhadj Djilali makes works that are remarkable for their formal simplicity, with an undeniable connection to the tradition of minimalism. At the same time, they communicate a high level of psychological intensity, primarily articulated through the use of glue, cement and paint. These materials are used in a way that highlights the contrast between their tactility and the rigid rectilinear forms of the works’ supports. Lumped together in loose and blobby shapes; pulled apart and left to dry so they form thin, bubbly films; squeezed and sandwiched between big structures; hidden behind the front surface of the work so the viewer has to try to find them - these material intrusions add feeling and a certain kind of sensuality into the formal perfection and distance of the otherwise precise, reductive language.
Referencing languages of design and every day material, they project an enjoyment in experimentation and discovery. Their consistency and quantity reveal a serious and ongoing engagement. Reading at times like perversions of Ikea furniture, they incite in the viewer the desire to pull apart the everyday, generic, mass-produced objects that surround us, to investigate what falls between the cracks, and to understand how materials produce interpretations without us intervening with them.
In the clarity of Benhadj Djilali’s artistic vocabulary, the inherent properties of materials (the grain of wood, the sticky translucence of glue, the powerful visual field created by a single colour of standard acrylic paint) are highlighted and displayed with great acuity. As with all works operating on a minimalist register, there is the contradictory desire to communicate and to say nothing. All art is open to interpretation, and with works such as Benhadj Djilali’s, the question of how to interpret the work becomes central, highlighting that we cannot perceive art without speculating about the intentions of the author.
Tom Saunders
Exhibition view, Poush, Paris, 2023
25 -2023
concrete
40 x 50 cm
25 - 2023 (side view)
5 - 2023
wood stretchers, concrete
100 x 100 cm
4 - 2023
wood stretchers, concrete
40 x 80 cm
23 - 2023
wood stretchers, expansive foam
20 x 30 cm
9 - 2022 (dyptich)
wood stretchers, cotton canvas, acrylic, detritus
350 x 185 cm
9 - 2022 ( close up )
35 - 2021
cotton canvas, acrylic, steel, bolts, threaded shafts
8 x 18 x 150 cm
35 - 2021 (close up)
Expo Protest, Théâtre de verre, Paris, 2001
22 - 2021
cotton canvas, acrylic, wood stretchers
130 x 130 cm
19 - 2021
wood stetchers, cotton canvas acrylic
40 x 40 cm
Exhibition view, Anarchy & Intention, CoGalerie, berlin, 2020
31 - 2020
painted canvas, wood beams, threaded shafs, bolt
85 x 15 x 40 cm
28 - 2020
crumbled painted canvas, wood boards, threaded shafts
20 x 20 x 40 cm
26 - 2020
painted canvas, wood beams, steel, bolt
170 x 250 cm
26 - 2020 (close up)
1 - 2020
wood stretcher bars, okoumé, gesso, acrylic, medium
40 X 50 cm
26 - 2020 (close up)
7 - 2020
wood, paint
20 x 20 cm
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7 - 2020 (side view)
1 - 2020
wood stretcher bars, okoumé, gesso, acrylic, medium
40 X 50 cm
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1 - 2020 (close up)
5 - 2020
wood, acrylic
15 x 10 x 30 cm
3 - 2020
wood, paint, acrylic
20 x 10 x 80 cm
3 - 2020 (sideview)
38 - 2019
wood, acrylic
20 x 10 x 60 cm
36 - 2019
wood, acrylic
30 x 30 x 10 cm
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1 - 2020
wood stretcher bars, okoumé, gesso, acrylic, medium
40 X 50 cm
1 - 2020
wood stretcher bars, okoumé, gesso, acrylic, medium
40 X 50 cm
1 - 2020
wood stretcher bars, okoumé, gesso, acrylic, medium
40 X 50 cm
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36 - 2019 (close up)
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35 - 2019 (close up)
26 - 2019
wood strecher bars , MDF , acrylic, glue
80 X 120 cm
27 - 2019
wood stretcher bars, mdf, glue
40 X 190 cm
23 - 2019
wood stretcher bars, Matt acrylic paint, mdf, glue
118 X 194 cm
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21 - 2019 (close up)
21 - 2019
wood stretcher bars, wooden batten, glue
82 X 82 cm
20 - 2019
wood stretcher bars, black matt acrylic paint, mdf, glue
40 X 40 cm
19 - 2019
wood stretcher bars , wooden batten, glue
62,5 X 62,5 cm
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18 - 2019
wood stretcher bars, mdf, acrylic, glue, box frame
55 X 65 cm
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1 - 2020
wood stretcher bars, okoumé, gesso, acrylic, medium
40 X 50 cm
12 - 2019
wood stretcher bars, MDF, acrylic, glue, American box frame
32,5 X 32,5 cm
22 - 2019
wood stretcher bars, Matt acrylic paint, MDF , glue
30 X 90 cm
1 - 2020
wood stretcher bars, okoumé, gesso, acrylic, medium
40 X 50 cm
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4 - 2019
wood stretcher bars, acrylic paint, glue, metallic plates
20 x 30 cm
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16 - 2019
chair, acrylic paint, metallic plates
105 x 105 cm
16 - 2019 (close up)
1 - 2020
wood stretcher bars, okoumé, gesso, acrylic, medium
40 X 50 cm
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28 - 2018
cardboard box, cement
70 x 120 cm
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28 - 2018 (side view)