ALGO - Cauchemar

Artist: Algo (French contemporary artist, active in France, born in the 21st century)

Nationality: French

Title: Nightmares

Year: 2024

Technique/Support: Mixed media on canvas (acrylic, texture, drips, gestural work)

Dimensions of the work (image): 60 × 40 cm
Canvas dimensions: 63 × 83 cm

Framing: Work framed by the artist (the frame was handmade and is an integral part of the piece), mounted on an easel

Signature:
Signed, titled and dated on the back of the canvas by the artist, handwritten

Edition:
Unique work (original piece).

Provenance:
Artist’s collection (France).

Documentation:
Certificate of authenticity provided by the artist.

Condition:
Very good overall condition.
Deliberate presence of material, drips, reliefs, and impasto that are an integral part of the artwork.
Canvas in good condition.

Delivery:
Work shipped, carefully protected with certificate of authenticity.
Dispatch possible within France and internationally.

Created in Rennes in 2024, during the artist’s research memoir-writing period, this work belongs to ALGO’s early paintings and already testifies to several elements that would later characterize his work: gestural abstraction, phenomena of visual projection, and the search for latent images within the pictorial material.

The composition is dominated by a broad red mass traversed by drips, traces, and successive overlays. A blue-tinted band along the left edge creates a chromatic tension that emphasizes the red and structures the space of the canvas.

At first glance abstract, the work progressively reveals different possible forms. Some viewers perceive a face, a silhouette, or an organic presence emerging. This visual ambiguity, close to pareidolia, already occupies an important place in the artist’s research at that time.

Created during ALGO’s formative philosophical years, the painting does not aim to illustrate a precise concept but conveys an intellectual climate marked by questions about perception, representation, and how the mind projects meaning into what it contemplates.

The handling of matter, the transparencies, and the successive layers give the whole a particular depth, where the image seems to appear and disappear depending on the distance and angle of the viewer.