The multi-layered practice of French-Algerian artist, Neïl Beloufa occupies the space between various dichotomies. Reality and fiction, cause and effect, presence and absence are the polarities between which the artist’s work begins to take form. Developing his reflection on these by combining various media, including sculpture, video and painting into single installations, Beloufa masterly manages to deconstruct our contemporary systems of belief by moving between the real and the imaginative.
Read MoreSituating himself between these polarities, Beloufa’s practice is deeply reflective. Examining established structures of power, incidentally, those within the 'creative economy', whilst dwelling on the authority that is afforded by artists in today’s society, Beloufa eliminates his dominant role by awarding agency to actors or materials, informing one another and coexisting in installations as though they are actors and props on a set.
Rejecting the alias of sculptor, or any alignment to a particular set of practices or creative processes, Beloufa works primarily as an editor, constructing scenarios to facilitate intersections between different meanings that viewers might build independently.
Neïl Beloufa (1985, Paris) lives and works in Paris.
The artist’s solo exhibitions include The Enemy of my Enemy, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2018); Global Agreement, Schirn Künsthalle Frankfurt, Frankfurt (2018); Neïl Beloufa, The Pejman Foundation, Teheran (2017); Projects 102: Neïl Beloufa, MoMA PS1, New York (2016); Counting On People, ICA, London (2014); Production Value, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2013).
His works have also been presented in institutional collective exhibitions such as 58th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia, Venice (2019); Bridging the Gap, Tsinghua University Art Museum, Beijing (2018); Yellow Creature, Kunstmuseum Luzern, Lucerne (2017); AVATAR AND ATAVISM, Kunsthalle Dusseldorf, Dusseldorf (2015); La Biennale de Lyon, Lyon (2013); The Unicorn, Cleveland Museum of Art (2013); 55th Venice Biennale, The Encyclopedic Palace, Veneza (2013); Wiener Secession 11th Baltic Triennale, CAC, Vilnius (2012).
Text courtesy Mendes Wood DM.
