Wifrid Almendra was born in Cholet, France, in 1972. He lives and works in Marseille, France and Casario, Portugal.
In Almendra’s practice, ideas and materials are inseparable. The artist’s formal vocabulary is derived from the architecture, shapes, and surfaces with which we surround ourselves. The materials he uses most often come from the alternative economy, barter and exchange. They bring into tension questions linked to social class, the desire for comfort and the individual capacity for invention and poetry found at the heart of the most normative things.
Almendra has presented solo exhibitions in France and internationally, including Adelaïde, Frac Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, Marseille, France (2022); So Much Depends Upon A Red Wheel Barrow, Atlantis Lumière, Marseille, France, as part of Manifesta 13 (2020); Light Boiled Like Liquid Soap, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France (2017); Light Boiled Like Liquid Soap, Fogo Island Arts, Canada (2016); Between the Tree and Seeing It, Les Églises, Chelles (2014); L’Intranquillité, Centre d’art Passerelle, Brest (2013); Matériologique, Fondation d’entreprise Ricard, Paris (2013). He has also taken part in a number of group shows, including Sors de ta réserve #1, Frac Île-de-France, Komunuma, Romainville, France (2022); 100 Artistes dans la ville – ZAT 2019, MO.CO. Montpellier Contemporain, Montpellier, France (2019); Singing Stones, DuSable Museum of African American History, Chicago, IL (2017); Flatland / abstractions narratives #1, MRAC, Sérignan, France (2016); L’Esprit du Bauhaus, Musée des Arts décoratifs, Paris, France (2016); Let’s Play, Galerie du cloître, Rennes, France, as part of the Biennale d’art contemporain (2014); Parapanorama, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France (2014); Vue d’en haut, Centre Pompidou-Metz, Metz, France (2013); Skyscraper: Art and Architecture Against Gravity, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA), Chicago, IL (2012); Zones arides, Lieu Unique, Nantes, France, and Fondation d’entreprise Ricard, Paris, France (2007), traveled to Museum of Contemporary Art, Tucson, AZ (2008); L’Histoire d’une décennie qui n’est pas encore nommée, Biennale de Lyon, Lyon, France (2007). He was nominated for the Prix Meurice and the Prix Maif for Contemporary Art in 2010, and was awarded an Audi Talent Award for Contemporary Art in 2008.
