Since his very first solo show at the Galerie du Jour (agnès b.) in Paris in 2005, Benchamma’s line has timidly ventured beyond paper. Over time, he began drawing in increasingly larger formats. Ten years later, he stretched his forms all the way out to the walls and ceilings of The Drawing Center in New York. From the rooms to the stairwell, visitors to the exhibition found themselves pursued by Benchamma’s graphic meanders, seemingly becoming protagonists in the work. In 2017, when he participated in the Sharjah Biennial, the artist continued his ‘dialogue with space’ by taking on even larger spaces, and even the surrounding architecture. From then on, his drawings became installations, and their location became an integral part of the work.
Last year, when taking over a space at the LagoAlgo cultural center in Mexico, Benchamma imposed a strict discipline on himself: mornings were devoted to drawing, afternoons to rest. Throughout the installation period, he went to bed early and paid close attention to his diet in order to remain at the height of his abilities for the task at hand. ‘The physical challenge brought me great pleasure,’ he says, ‘almost to the point of being addictive.’ Fortified by his experience and by a growing confidence in his practice, Benchamma now feels his movements are more relaxed; he accepts mistakes, smudges, and drips when they arise, or else he masks them with an artful camouflage while he slowly incorporates color into his work with touches of blue, red, or orange. ‘This letting go eliminates a lot of the fatigue for me,’ he adds. ‘Holding back, being afraid of making a mistake, and calculating how to use the white spaces was exhausting.’
