Bilal Hamdad, a talented painter born in Algeria, is currently showcasing his extraordinary artistic vision at two major exhibitions in France. His solo exhibition "Paname" runs at the prestigious Petit Palais in Paris until February 8, 2026, while his work is also featured in "Spain Between Two Centuries" at the Goya Museum in Castres until March 6, 2026.
Hamdad has emerged as a remarkable painter whose work carries significant weight and demonstrates masterful control of light and reality. His name has been circulating throughout the art world, particularly since his October opening at the Petit Palais. The exhibition title "Paname" – Parisian slang for Paris – captures both the city and its exposed veins, reflecting how he paints urban life with documentary precision mixed with pictorial storytelling.
Born in 1987 in Sidi Bel Abbés, Algeria, Hamdad's first passion was soccer, where he played as a libero – the free-roaming defender who serves as the last line of defense. However, at age 17, he could no longer see a future in the sport. It was his multifaceted father who provided him with a new direction. His father was an engineer, teacher, farmer, writer, and painter – a man of many talents who guided his son toward the arts.
This paternal influence led Hamdad to enroll at the Fine Arts school in his hometown, where he experienced a revelation and discovered true happiness in painting. The young artist found his calling in visual arts, marking the beginning of his journey from athlete to acclaimed painter.
Hamdad's artistic process combines photography with traditional oil painting techniques. He uses his camera as a sketchbook, capturing spontaneous moments or slightly staged scenes, which he then transforms into striking naturalistic oil paintings. Like photographer Eugène Atget before him, he documents Paris with fascinating precision, capturing its streets, professions, and passersby with remarkable detail.
As an urban naturalist working between documentary and pictorial fable, Hamdad brings painting back to prominence in an era saturated with digital images. His work is far from nostalgic or backward-looking; instead, it pulses with contemporary vitality and relevance.
A recurring theme in his social realist paintings is solitude, particularly since his arrival in Paris. "The theme of solitude came since I've been in Paris," Hamdad explains. "I didn't decide from the start to work on this subject, but it came gradually. This question is found in big cities, and in Paris." This sense of isolation permeates his urban scenes, reflecting the paradoxical loneliness that can exist within bustling metropolitan environments.
Hamdad feels a deep connection to classical masters, particularly Caravaggio, Velázquez, and Manet. What unites these artists is their obsession with transposing the sacred into the ordinary – in Hamdad's case, into urban spaces. He draws inspiration from these masters while developing his own contemporary vision.
"I always try to highlight the person I'm going to present," Hamdad says. "It could be friends, a delivery person, a saleswoman, someone coming out of the subway... and I put them all on the same level." This democratic approach to his subjects reflects his commitment to finding dignity and significance in everyday urban life.
The artist reinterprets classical religious works within contemporary urban settings, creating intergenerational pieces that reintroduce the sacred into scenes of daily life. He has reimagined "The Angelus" in a subway station and transformed Millet's "Ophelia" in his painting "Nuits égarées" (Lost Nights), where the prone figure evokes a shipwrecked immigrant. These works demonstrate his ability to bridge classical art history with contemporary social issues.
Hamdad's technique and subject matter represent a dialogue between the sacred and the profane, elevating ordinary urban moments to the level of religious painting. His oil paintings capture the essence of modern city life while maintaining the technical mastery and compositional sophistication of the old masters he so admires.
The "Paname" exhibition at the Petit Palais continues to draw attention from art critics and the public alike, establishing Hamdad as a significant voice in contemporary realist painting. His work offers a fresh perspective on urban life in Paris, combining documentary precision with artistic interpretation to create a new form of social realism for the 21st century.
