From Graffiti Walls to Canvas: A Journey of Movement

When I started painting on walls, I didn’t imagine that one day I’d be showing my work in galleries or hotels. What mattered then was the gesture — the energy of a line, the vibration of color, the urgency of leaving a trace. Graffiti was my first school of rhythm and composition. It taught me to move fast, to breathe with the surface, and to let instinct guide the hand.

Years later, when I began working on canvas, that same rhythm was still there. The walls had simply become smaller, more intimate, but the dialogue remained the same. Painting in the studio brought a new dimension — silence. It allowed me to slow down, to listen to what happens between two strokes, to feel how the gesture transforms when it’s not driven by speed but by intention.

My work today carries both energies: the raw pulse of the street and the quiet depth of the studio. Every piece is a dance between control and release — a balance I learned from the walls of Paris and refined under the light of Dubai.

Moving from graffiti to canvas wasn’t about changing mediums. It was about continuing the same conversation, but in a new language — one where movement becomes meaning, and the trace becomes memory.

Hakim Idriss
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