BIOGRAPHY
Janick CALVEZ says:“Enrique SAMAMA approaches artistic creation as a liberating and chaotic experience, where he abandons control to let raw and disturbing emotions emerge. To the point of exhaustion. It’s a fascinating exploration of the human psyche, marked by universal desires and anxieties.”
“It’s an intuition that goes straight to the enigma, to make it evident, straight to what ruins and frightens, to make it something shared.”
When I work, for 8 to 10 hours straight, on dozens of sheets, I try to lose control and paint at the edge of consciousness.
For me, it’s about searching for love but being trapped, freeing myself through painting. These characters resist, rebel, stick out their tongues, dance… it’s daring everything, even to show these paintings, even to trust! Because we have things in common (gender issues, religion, race, society…), I think these paintings can help. We are different but the same on the essential things of life. For you too…
CV
March 2027: Galleria Kookos by Hong Liu-Sertti, Helsinki, Finland.
September 2026: Design Festa Gallery Harajuku, Tokyo, Japan
May 2026: DEBOUWPUT by Dominyka, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
March 2026: USINE 106U by Eric BRAÛN, Montreal, Canada.
December December 2025:Marina Volpi’s Artexpertise Gallery (Florence) in London, England.Group exhibition.
Group exhibition.October 2025: Gallery 86 by Hälsning Erika Wilhelmsson, Stockholm, Sweden.
Avril 2025: Galerie Art Nou, Barcelona, Spain. Group exhibition.
April 2025: Stefano Boschetti international competition, Sartirana, Italy.
June 2011: Le Confort des Etranges Gallery, Toulouse, France. Group exhibition.
December 2010: Marzelles Museum, “Humanity at Last,” Marmande, France. Solo Exhibition
October 2010: Factura International Festival 2010, “In Arte Veritas” in Villefranche-de-Lonchat, France. Group exhibition with Pierre Alechinsky, Karel Appel, Hans Bellmer, Ben Calder, David Hockney, Francis Toledo, Roland Topor, and others.
January 2010:Top 9 “The 9 Nominated Artists” by L’Oeil Neuf, Christiane Peugeot Center, Avenue de la Grande Armée, Paris, France. Group exhibition.
November 2009: “Lyon and South East Exhibition,” Lyon, France.
Group exhibition.
October 2008: Factura International Festival 2008, “Human Condition, 10 Artists,” Villefranche-de-Lonchat and surrounding areas, France.
February 2008: Cultural Center of the City of Paris, La Jonquière, Paris, France. Solo exhibition.
January 2007 :”Imprudent,” Maison de la Fontaine, Brest, France.
Solo exhibition, voted Talent of the Year by the city of Brest.
June 2005 and 2006
June 2005 and 2006 : Anti Reflets Gallery, Nantes, France.
Group and then solo exhibitions
STATEMENT
Following the exhibition Body and Souls, Paris, Pinault collection, July 25:
I think about life, about death
I was dreaming, the song goes, but I never dream.
That’s why I paint more vividly, I already live so vividly now.
“For once I was a young man and a young woman, a shrub and a bird, and a mute fish of the sea…” … and black and white, … everything is possible and beautiful” Empedocles, 5th century BC, exhibition at Mac Val Paris, July 25.
As of today, I decided to call myself Sama, which means “little flower” in Palestinian, in this desert. Samama: The proximity of the names shows the proximity of peoples who have been at war for centuries. I no longer want to be seen as the aggressor and have to answer for Israel’s policies.
I paint to the limit of consciousness, to wear and tear, on dozens of sheets at the same time.”It’s a new attempt by a new artist to reach the human!” My characters, as psychoanalyst Marie Hemery,psychanalyst saw it, are “these inner children who reveal themselves, surpass themselves, and touch us through the raw expression of deep emotions. The unconscious would be this impression, this basic structure of identity construction. In fact, it is expressed in black and white.”
I add: They are from childhood, from the animal… They are there facing death, free and joyful…
