Biography

Franck Saïssi (born 1975, Grenoble) lives and works in Nice.
His work investigates unstable architectures, abandoned places, and threshold spaces.

Trained at École Émile Cohl (Lyon), the Fine Arts Academy of Carrara (Italy), and the DAC Ateliers in Paris, he has developed a pictorial research that merges rigorous construction, the depth of black, and slow, layered processes rooted in Venetian techniques.

A defining experience during his formative years shaped his attention toward zones of fracture, enclosed interiors, and areas where inside and outside contaminate one another.
This tension is never literal; it provides a foundation from which he constructs a mental, memorial, almost architectonic form of painting.

Based in Nice since the late 1990s, he has developed a demanding practice that also extends to drawings on antique books and nautical charts, engaging notions of palimpsest, erasure, and the superimposition of narratives.

Selected exhibitions

• Lost, Maison Abandonnée [Villa Cameline], Nice (2021)
• Perfect Day : Drug and Art, WhiteBox, New York (2021–2022)
• La Vie est un Film, Le 109, Nice (2019)
• Le Palais Idéal du Facteur Cheval, Musée du Facteur Cheval, Hauterives (2016)
• ST-ART Strasbourg (2023)
• Paréidolie, Marseille (2025)

For several years, he has maintained a strong relationship with the Maison Abandonnée [Villa Cameline], where Hélène Fincker has closely followed the evolution of his work. Her insight and support have played an important role in the maturation and visibility of his practice.