I was born into a working-class family of French and Spanish origins in Algeria during French colonial occupation and, as a child, was part of the exodus toward France once Algeria achieved independence.
Since then, I have lived extensively in Ecuador, South America and, most recently, the United Kingdom. Since moving to the UK in 2006, I gained an MA in Fine Art from the University ofBrighton in 2008.
I am known for my contribution as a ‘pied noir’ artist to the emerging Franco/Algerian art movement, with abody of work – paintings, digital artworks – that strongly critiqued colonial discourses that excused French dominance and my work has made a distinctive contribution to post-colonial discourse and theemerging Franco-Algerian art movement. I am interested in the evolving relationship between thecontemporary world and our deeper humanity.
As a young adult, I lived in South Africa for two years under the apartheid. I was teaching at the University ofFort Hare, a key institution in higher education for black Africans, which counted among its former students a number of prominent leading opponents of the apartheid regime among them Nelson Mandela, GovanMbeki and Oliver Tambo.
This was my first-hand experience of a society based on discrimination, repression and deprivation of civil andpolitical rights for a large part of the population. It deeply marked me and fuelled in me a sense for the politically, socially and humanly acceptable.
I was twice recipient of the prestigious Leverhulme Trust Award. I co-curated Algerianism 1, as part of the pan-Arabic Nour Festival in London’s Kensington and Chelsea (2015). I also participated in the 3rdBiennale of Mediterranean Contemporary Arts in Oran, Algeria (2014), Art Bahrain (2015), the 7thInternational Festival of Contemporary Arts (FIAC) at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Arts in Algiers (2015),) Art 16 London (2016), the 4th Biennale of Mediterranean Contemporary Art in Oran(2017), London Art Fair, Islington (2020), Arcadia Gallery Civ-Oeil, Oran (2024) and the International Festival of Contemporary Art (IFCA), Palais de la Culture, Algiers (2024).
Some of my work is held by the Museum of Modern Arts of Oran (MAMO), the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Arts of Algiers (MAMA), IFCA Algiers as wells as many international private collections.
Revolution in the air, 3rd Mediterranean Contemporary Art Biennale, Oran, Algeria, Hahnemuehle paper on Dibond, Hahnemuehle paper on Dibond 72x135cm (ed of 7)
Patriotic national anthems sung loud at the hoisting of the flag, proudly claim, “All
is calm in the hearts of the conquered people”. They act as a litany, religiously federating and soothing people’s conscience.
The strength of the army supports the pillars of civilisation erected by the superior races that clone, manipulate, and erase at will; a civilised soul for a native soul, never learning from personal andcollective experience.
Their insulting democratic discourses is the measure by which they judge the people they have freed and that nonetheless seem to have fallen into anarchy, and the ages of Barbary. There is a price to pay for enlightenment.
Patrick Altes is the grain of sand in the smooth cogs of the machine mastering the grotesque manipulation of the world. His work infers an oblique consciousness aiming at unsettling the order of things and tapping into our remnant lucidity.
Omar Meziani. Algerian Curator.
Patrick Altes’ art revolves around the idea of drifting Diaspora. As an artist of French and Spanish origin, who was born in Algeria, grew up in France and spent extensive time in South Africa and South America, issues of identity are deep-rooted in his own life and in his art.
His paintings and photographs not only raise our awareness of self but also strive to identify and change social attitudes towards Algerian and former French colonial populations in France.
He believes that art can have a tangible social impact. Through abstracted forms and photographic imagery, he challenges conventional ways of addressing social issues within French society.
Titles, often taken from literature, connect paintings with complex messages on themes such as identity, emigration, and memory. While on the surface, his paintings may seem optimistically flamboyant the carefully considered content is a poignant reminder of our essential insignificance.
Janet Rady. Gallery Director and Curator.
From the onset, Patrick Altes strikes you with his empathy, his intelligence, his creativity as well as his artistic proficiency. His engagement with memory takes its roots in his early life in North Africa and has influenced a complex visual language that powerfully serves its purpose. His current creations elicit strong powerful sweeping emotions in the viewer.
Karim Sergoua. Curator 3rd Mediterranean Biennale of Contemporary Art, Oran
Patrick Altes is an authentic, humble and sincere artist. His latest work, created under the spell and deeplyinfluenced by his North African roots was exhibited for the first time in his country and city of birth Oran. Their symbolic and expressive originality, their exploration of past memory and relevance to present time as well astheir historical and political scope give the measure of his talent as a contemporary artist. His originalphotographic work invites an aesthetic and philosophical reading. Bringing together digital photography, drawings and graffiti, they are reminiscent of the Aoucham painting mouvement.
Tewfik Ali Chaouche. Founding President of the Mediterranean Biennale of Contemporary Artin Oran.
Utopia 2. Mixed media on deckled edge watercolour paper Dim: 77x73cm
Utopia 10. Mixed media on deckled edge watercolour paper Dim: 77x73cm
Utopia 9. Mixed media on deckled edge watercolour paper Dim: 77x73cm
Utopia. Digital print on photographic paper Dim: 77x73cm, 8th International Festival of Contemporary Art, Palais de la Culture Moufdi Zakaria, Algiers
Utopia 9. Digital print on photographic paper Dim: 77x73cm, 8th International Festival of Contemporary Art, Palais de la Culture Moufdi Zakaria, Algiers
Utopia 10. Digital print on photographic paper. Dim: 77x73cm, Arcadia, Galerie Civ-Oeil, with the support of the French Institute, Oran
Arcadia 15. Mixed media on canvas. Dim: 30x24cm. DZ, Algerian Cultural Festival with Culturama, P21 Gallery, London
Arcadia 13. Mixed media on canvas. Dim: 30x24cm. DZ, Algerian Cultural Festival with Culturama, P21 Gallery, London
The Myth of Arcadia. Mixed media and collage on canvas. Dim: 120x100cm
Migration. Installation. Part of “Tolerance”, solo show curated by Janet Rady, with the support of the Arts Council England, Gerald Moore Gallery, Mottingham, London