Joanathan Bessaci

Gorilla, cutouts, maps, mapart, animal art, gorilla mixed media

2016

Joanathan Bessaci is a Washington D.C. artist of French origin. He emigrated to the District of Columbia from France, where he was born and grew up. Bessaci is a paper artist. His work with paper is twofold. He creates elaborate cut outs from antique French Michelin maps which he layers to create new images. He also sculpts animals out of recycled cardboard. Bessaci was naturally drawn to maps as a medium because has been surrounded by vintage maps and other unique objects since he was a child. Both his father and grandfather owned stands in Lyon’s largest and most renowned flea market where Bessaci I spent hours as a child and adolescent interacting with Lyon’s diverse populations. More recently, Bessaci found himself drawn to cardboard as a medium when he temporarily moved to the south of France in 2021 and could no longer work with the maps and other materials that he had left behind in his studio in Washington DC. During the pandemic, the easily accessible cardboard allowed him to seamlessly switch gears to a material that provided him with the possibility to continue to create. Joanathan Bessaci has shown his work in the US and internationally, notably in New York, Boston, Paris, Montreal, and Washington, DC.