Sandrine Rose Abessera

Sandrine Rose Abessera was born in Paris in 1977 to parents of French Moroccan heritage. She is a graduate of ESMOD, France’s top fashion school. After working for several years as creative director for a variety of fashion brands including her own, Sandrine Rose, Abessera has for the last fifteen years devoted herself to her studio practice. Sandrine's work exists first as unique original assemblages made from a variety of media, including photographs from her travels that have been deconstructed and rephotographed, layer upon layer, and composed in terms of shapes, forms and color, as if her photographs were themselves brushstrokes and printed on different papers and surfaces. Other elements are then added to the work, including color, spray paint, oil, tape and pastels. Once finished, the original assemblages which can be sculptural, are themselves photographed and become part of a series, each inspired by a place, a feeling, a secret meaning. By the strange alchemy of Abessera’s eye and her talent, the works convey emotion, wit, intelligence and provokes one's recall of childhood moments, and of travel where the past is present, and the present is a jumble of reminiscences, dreams, and associations, each a narrative, searching for its own meaning. She is painting with images in ways that remain personal to her, yet communicate emotionally to the viewer.

Artist Statement

My work has developed a singular practice defined by an intuitive approach, as I cull eclectic ephemera from the Internet, signage, detritus, and other materials from my daily life which reflect my fractured thoughts into my living environment. My artwork exists first as unique original assemblages made from a variety of media that have been deconstructed and rephotographed, layer upon layer, and composed in terms of shapes, forms, and color. Striving for monumentality, I rephotograph segments of the surface and use different techniques to print on, such as wood, linen, and canvas. Once finished, the original assemblages, which can be sculptural, are themselves photographed, each inspired by a place, a feeling, a secret meaning. The heavily worked collage paintings are expertly balanced arrangements of found imagery from magazines and photographs. When I was 12 years old, growing up in Paris, my mother took me to see a child therapist. The therapist decided that an office was not most conducive to our conversations. Instead, each week I went to an art museum, where I grew to feel at home among rare objects and the painted world. In each work, I write a visual essay using images instead of words. I am telling my story where I depicts the full spectrum of humanity’s past and present. My photo collage paintings can be compared to rebuses—pictographic puzzles that convey coded messages through a patchwork of symbolic images and text.