Idir Davaine (b. 1990) French

Born in 1990, Idir Davaine lives and works in Paris. After graduating from the École supérieure des Arts décoratifs de Strasbourg and then from the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris in 2017, he has developed a painterly practice in which landscape becomes a field for formal experimentation rather than a representational motif.

His work originates in a close observation of his surroundings. Photography plays an essential role in his creative process, allowing him to collect fragments of landscapes, details of vegetation, mountains and coastlines that subsequently inform his paintings. Far from faithfully transcribing reality, these images become the raw material for a process of recomposition in which forms, colours and rhythms gradually free themselves from their figurative origins.

Idir Davaine’s works are characterised by a fluid and generous approach to painting, in which colours overlap, respond to one another and construct spaces open to interpretation. References to landscape remain perceptible without ever imposing themselves, giving rise to a universe in which abstraction and figuration coexist in a subtle balance. This approach places sensation, gesture and memory at the heart of his practice.

In 2024, a residency at the Chapelle Saint-Antoine, on the island of Naxos in Greece, marked a new chapter in his artistic research. Mediterranean landscapes, light and vegetation inspired a series of works in which colours gained intensity while compositions became more open and luminous. This experience notably gave rise to the exhibition Tendres dédales, presented by the Ketabi Bourdet gallery in 2025.

Since his first solo exhibition in Paris in 2021, the Ketabi Bourdet gallery has closely supported his career, dedicating several solo exhibitions to his work and regularly presenting his paintings at leading contemporary art fairs. His work has also been exhibited in Singapore, Geneva, New York and Mâcon, and several of his works have entered the collections of the Centre national des arts plastiques and the Société Générale Collection.