Isabelle Moreau Hamdan

As a child, visits to my grandparents at the Palais-Royal in Paris immersed me in an environment deeply attached to classical culture. It was a sensibility I grew up around: a way of living with art, objects and the quiet presence of the past. That early familiarity continues to inform what I find beautiful today.

I studied at CREAPOLE in Paris and hold a Master’s degree in Visual Communication. During my studies, Wednesdays were devoted to museums. We went there to observe, draw and paint, working with form and colour in the company of artworks.

I loved those moments: taking time to look, moving between different styles of painting and discovering what a composition, a colour or a single line can make us feel. They helped shape the way I see.

Living abroad in Turkmenistan, Tanzania, Morocco and Qatar added another dimension to this foundation. Being immersed in different cultures, encountering their art and experiencing other ways of life enriched both my openness to the world and my artistic eye.

These years taught me to look beyond what felt familiar. I became more attentive to the ways people inhabit places and give meaning to the objects around them. I do not seek to illustrate each country literally; rather, I carry the richness of these experiences into a more personal way of seeing.

Now based in Dubai, I bring these different threads into a practice rooted in memory, observation and imagination. Classical figures, fragments of architecture and gestures from everyday life become the elements of a visual language made of pared-back lines, natural tones, texture and light.

What moves me about the classical world is its ability to remain present. I do not want to keep it at a distance, confined to another era. I want to revisit it with freedom and intimacy, allowing it to find a place in the present.