Paris café scenes: the street art of Bilal Hamdad… the ancient traditions of cafés in contemporary times …
Franco-Algerian artist Bilal Hamdad showcases his ability to transform ordinary Paris street scenes into profound moments of reflection through art. Hamdad works from photographs he takes on the streets of the city, and translates them into large-scale oil paintings, focusing on people – people on the footpath, but mainly people in cafés. Bilal Hamdad’s “Paname” exhibition at Petit Palais in Paris from 17 October 2025 to 8 February 2026 is dispersed throughout the permanent exhibitions at Palais art galleries, rather than in one location, but they are distinctive and easily recognizable as contemporary urban art. Born in Sidi Bel Abbès, Algeria, in 1987, Hamdad trained in Algeria and France, including at the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts de Paris (Paris School of Fine Arts) where he graduated in 2018. One recurring subject in Hamdad’s oeuvre, and a highlight of the “Paname” exhibition, is Parisian café culture. In his works, café scenes aren’t just backdrops but the soul of the city in three themes: terrace moments, universal feelings, and stillness in motion. The terrace moments show the outside café terraces that have become synonymous with urban social life: patrons seated at small tables, a server pausing between them, people in conversations, and dogs sitting near their owners on sunlit pavements or cobblestones. The universal feelings show Hamdad’s café diners checking their smartphones, Perrier bottles on tables, and small accents of colour, such as a red jacket or a bright cap. Hamdad captures stillness in motion as a snapshot in time amid a bustling café atmosphere. It is partly an exploration of social solitude and partly a shared moment of stillness away from urban responsibilities. Hamdad’s café artworks also embody the history of painting. His inspiration comes from French masters like Gustave Courbet (1819-1877) and Édouard Manet (1832-1883), as well as Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640). Hamdad’s artworks hang alongside the works of these masters in the Petit Palais galleries. This approach enriches our experience of both the old and the new, revealing that the simple act of sharing a drink at a café table continues to resonate across centuries of artistic expression. Paris is known for its café culture as places where people gather, pause, observe, and reflect. What Bilal Hamdad does in his “Paname” exhibition is to elevate these everyday moments into art that feels deeply social, rooted on ancient traditions but unmistakably contemporary.
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