Born in the Paris southeastern suburb of Créteil, Mohamed Bengriba was somewhat of a latecomer to art. A television report on Marc Chagall’s “Bella with White Collar” was the force that drew him in. Bengriba began touring museums, seeking connection with the likes of Klee, Kandinsky, and Pollock. Shortly thereafter, he began experimenting with digital photography. One day, having discovered a spider’s web wet with droplets of fresh rain, Bengriba realized he could manipulate his photos, playing with light, contrast, and saturation. This editing process has become an essential part of his work. “If a photograph represents something in a too-obvious way,” Bengriba says, “I process it until it has lost enough of its photogenics.”

 

Bengriba’s current body of work is vivid and heavily saturated, reminiscent of a thermal scan. It is, in a sense, a puzzle, pushing the viewer to both guess at the original content and to examine a world that is entirely new. “I am interested in abstraction,” Bengriba says. “To me, abstraction is synonymous with freedom.”

 

Mohamed Bengriba currently lives in France.