Martine Aballéa
Born in 1950, in New York, Martine Aballéa is a genre-breaking contemporary artist.
Her polymorphic artistic practice, initiated in 1975, is built around multiples (postcards, artists' books, posters...), as well as objects and installations. Her work brings to life imaginary places, mysterious plots, thereby creating narratives that are close to tales. It is finely articulated between texts and reworked or altered photographic images, which are colored without any form of naturalism. By these means, her productions offer a great spiritual journey to viewers. Images of nature and domestic settings are recurring: the latter inhabit her color enhanced photographs, giving rise to a dreamlike form of surrealism. Ever since her early works, her favorite subject is the creation of imaginary institutions, such as the Hôtel Passager, which was truly and physically embodied in the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, in 1999. She has been recognized for installations like La maison d'en dessous at the Narcissio, in Nice, in 2016. A new narrative was developed in 2017 at the Musée des Amours in a scenography conceived for the EXTRA! festival at the Centre Georges-Pompidou, including a series of photographs and an edition. Recently, Martine Aballéa exhibited her installation Eldorado Lounge at the Tri Postal in Lille as part of the exhibition "Eldorama" (2019). A personal exhibition, "La Maison lointaine" was dedicated to her at the Palais Idéal du Facteur Cheval in Hauterives in 2023.
