Opening: May 21. 19:00 - 21:00
Via Vincenzo Monti, 32. Milan.
Wizard Gallery is pleased to present Stella Terrae, the new solo exhibition by French-Algerian artist Abdelkader Benchamma.
Taking its title from The Comet Book (Kometenbuch), a mysterious 16th-century Flemish manuscript renowned for its vivid representations of comets and fantastical celestial visions, the exhibition reflects on humanity’s enduring fascination with signs in the sky. During the medieval period, such phenomena were often interpreted through superstition, prophecy, and myth. Benchamma revisits this impulse, suggesting that these ancient ways of reading the heavens continue to resonate today. Science and mysticism, astronomy and astrology, rational inquiry and folklore remain deeply intertwined, constantly reshaping how we perceive both the cosmos and our place within it.
In this latest series, Abdelkader Benchamma shifts away from scientific depictions of outer space to focus instead on its symbolic and emotional dimensions. His richly composed landscapes merge expansive atmospheric environments with enigmatic sculptural forms like meteorites and suspended stones, that drift above forests, villages, and quiet horizons. Executed with meticulous precision and a restrained chromatic palette, the works exist in a space between familiarity and hallucination, encouraging prolonged contemplation and open-ended interpretation.
The exhibition features a series of intricate ink drawings and a monumental mural accompanied by a projected animation. Suggesting a portal or threshold, the painted structure opens onto a turbulent sequence of moving textures, hybrid forms, and spectral figures. Fragments resembling decaying satellites, transforming planetary matter, and unidentified organic presences appear suspended within a cosmic vortex. Through this interplay between material surfaces and immaterial imagery, the artist constructs dreamlike environments that draw from surrealist traditions while remaining deeply connected to our contemporary challenges.
Benchamma’s practice encompasses both highly intricate, engraving-like works on paper and expansive site-specific murals. Influenced by literature, philosophy, astrophysics, and Eastern philosophies, his work challenges conventional understandings of time, space, and perception. Rather than simply observing the works, viewers are invited to experience them physically and psychologically—moving through layers, fissures, and shifting dimensions that blur the boundary between the visible world and the unknown.
