Born in 1992 in Chlef, Abdelhak Benallou first trained for five years at the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts d’Alger. He then joined the École Supérieure d’Art de Dunkerque, graduating in 2019, before continuing his studies at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris, where he obtained his degree in 2024.
Through painting, he develops a reflection on behaviors and social relationships within contemporary society. His canvases, striking in their realism, initially impress through their technical mastery. Yet beyond this virtuosity, the true strength of his work lies in the intimate and meticulous attention he pays to reality. His portraits and still lifes reveal a deeply personal gaze, attentive to the details of a face or to the quiet beauty of an everyday object. Through a subtle play of artificial chiaroscuro, he creates an atmosphere in which pictorial realism retains its share of mystery, inviting the viewer to move beyond appearances and enter a space of ambiguity and contemplation.
His work was quickly recognized: in 2022, he was awarded a residency at the Villa Albertine in Chicago. That same year, he received the first prize of the second edition of the Prix Sarr, the portrait prize from the Amis des Beaux-Arts, and was a finalist for the Bourse Révélations Emerige. More recently, in 2025, he received the Fondation de France Prize during the Félicités exhibition at the Beaux-Arts de Paris.
