Joel Alessandra

Somewhere between travelogue and documentary, Joël Alessandra sweeps us up in a whirlwind of colors and emotions, bringing us up close to the people he meets and whose daily lives he shares. His sketchbook-style drawings, blending liveliness and tenderness, capture every nuance of each landscape. Stolen moments gathered at the whim of his brush. 

To preserve your works on paper, we recommend that you never expose them to direct light, as UV rays can damage the mediums used. Paintings made with pastel or charcoal require special care to avoid rubbing. Works containing watercolor are particularly sensitive to light, unlike gouache and acrylic.
We advise you to display them away from windows, and to use frames made from pH-neutral conservation materials and “Museum” glass with anti-UV and anti-reflective treatment. If you prefer to keep your works unframed, we recommend storing them flat, in drawing cartons, with sheets of pH-neutral permanent paper in between. Keep them away from light and humidity.

Born in Marseille in 1967 and a graduate of the École Boulle in interior design, Joël Alessandra made his debut in Italy in the magazine Il Grifo. As a writer and illustrator, he has drawn inspiration for his sketchbooks and graphic novels from his travels around the world for over 30 years. His stays in Africa inspired Fikrie (La Boîte à Bulles, 2006), while Errance en mer Rouge (Wandering in the Red Sea, 2014) won an award at the Nîmes Comic Art Festival. He also published Les Voyages d’Ibn Battûta (Dupuis, 2020) and adapted a novel by Michel Bussi into On la trouvait plutôt jolie (Michel Lafon, 2022). As a guest speaker at French Institutes, Alliances Françaises and refugee camps, he blends comic art and journalism in web documentaries, notably for Le Monde. In 2023, he joined Daniel Maghen Publishing with Le Voyageur, in collaboration with Théa Rojzman, followed by Je est un autre in 2025.