Featured Artist of The Week: Sonia Ben Achoura!
"French artist Sonia Ben Achoura generates innovative works of art at the intersection between art and science. With a background in psychology, she depicts her insights into the psyche onto canvas in oils and acrylics. Her fascination with human nature at the present stage of evolution manifests in geometric compositions with futuristic overtones.
Captivated by abstraction, her art nevertheless lies between the abstract and the figurative. The artist shapes light and colour as the basis for her compositions. Like intimations of perfection, her paintings are born out of an interplay between light and matter. Ben Achoura creates a world of vivid colour, dynamic forms, and geometric perfection. Her concern for the environment transpires throughout her body of work, as she contemplates future outcomes through her art. The potential for a partnership between mankind and nature is envisaged as she weaves organic forms over the fabric of robotic geometry.
She regularly exhibits her work at galleries and art fairs in Europe. She sells her paintings and prints internationally.”
Selected artwork:
Artworks in order:
The Future of Life, 2019, Acrylic on canvas with deep edges, W86.5 x H101.5 x D3.7cm, £10000
Technology and biology collide in this painting. A robotic conceptualisation of mankind, at the intersection between biological life and technology, this painting reconciles two worlds. At a time of climate emergency, it is a tribute to the mysterious world of plants. Silent, vivid manifestations of life, they are embodiments of creativity, symbols of love. Deceptively fragile in appearance, orchids, bleeding hearts and jade vines cling on to life. At the centre of the painting, a man-made tunnel may be leading into oblivion. Yet it could also be a way into a more harmonious way of life. Sliding plates give a sense of perspective and rapid motion. As the speed of life accelerates, there is the need to protect delicate creatures in the wild.
Human Eclipse, 2020, Mixed media (oil and acrylics) on canvas with deep edges, 51 x 51 x 3 cm, £1500
Spring 2020.
A pandemic devastates the world.
An apocalyptic scenario that only science fiction had insinuated.
Human existence is eclipsed while nature is reborn.
Spring never seemed so vibrant, as isolation took over.
From the deepest silence emerged new art.
Images imbued with solitude and despair.
Like seeds of hope to grow a better future
Where man and nature
Walk hand in hand.
Intimations of a wise new world,
The potential to embrace all of life,
Rather than eclipse parts of it.
This painting reveals light from within.
Like a radiant moon in the dark sky
It illuminates itself,
Like a being that sustains its own life.
It seems most alive at night,
In the darkest of times.
Unfolding Lightscape, 2021, Acrylic on canvas board, 71 x 91 cm, £1700
The universe unfolds with the passing of time. Abstract landscapes in constant flux, shaped in wind, matter, and water. As summer ends, a new emotion arises. The last warm breeze announces colder nights, and the sun sets as we cling on to the last ray of light.
The Optics of Happiness, 2020, Acrylics on canvas with painted sides, W86.6 x H61.5 x D4, £2900
As lockdown ended A new mood swept through A wave of happiness as summer ends And inspiration strikes Stepping out of isolation The need to grasp life in all its transient nature. The urge to soak in the last warming rays Of a sun that weakens daily As the cosmic dance Of stars and planets Sends us back into darkness The urgency is felt To catch the dimming sparks of life.
God Within, 2010, Acrylic on canvas with deep edges, H60.79 x W91.3 x D3.5 cm, £2700
This painting is inspired by neuro-theological research.
The search for God continues, now with new methods: neuroscience now conducts research with neuro-imaging
technology to discover the areas in the brain that activate during prayer, meditation and spiritual experiences. MRI scans have yielded some fascinating results, yet the interpretation of these findings remains unclear. For some, the activation of these areas of the brain shows that God speaks to humans through these localized areas. For others, activity within these spiritual 'hotspots' seem to generatethese experiences. Scientific attempts to prove or disprove the existence of God continue on...