Contributed by Rebecca Chace / Born in 1980 in Algiers, Massinissa Selmani lives and works in Tours, France and Tizi-Ouzou, Algeria. He studied computer science in Algeria and graduated from the École Supérieure des Beaux-arts in Tours. In 2015, he received a special mention at the 56th Venice Biennale. The following year, he won the Art Collector Prize (France) and the SAM Art Projects Prize for Contemporary Art (France). In 2023, Selmani was shortlisted for the Marcel Duchamp Prize. “A Fault in the Mirage,” his first New York solo show, is on view at Jane Lombard Gallery through April 27.
I met Selmani at Civitella Ranieri, an artist residency in Umbria, Italy. We were part of the first group of artists they welcomed coming out of the pandemic in spring 2021. We became a very close-knit group and several collaborations have emerged from our time together. In his first monograph, published by Skira, Selmani included four poems by poet and novelist Kaveh Akbar. I spent time with Selmani at the opening of his current show, and we followed up with a conversation about his work.
