Life journey
Born in Lebanon, David Daoud is a painter, draftsman and sculptor. His childhood was marked by civil war., displacement and rupture. He grew up between Lebanon, Gabon and France, in a state of geographical and emotional instability that has durably shaped its relationship to the world.
From an early age, drawing and painting became spaces of refuge. Trained at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts, and later at the École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs in Paris, he worked alongside sculptor Charles Auffret, developing a precise attention to material, volume, and the physical presence of the artwork.
David Daoud now lives today in the Vexin region. He regularly exhibits in France and internationally, his work is presented by galleries and institutions, including l’Institut du Monde Arabe. In 2011, he was awarded the Frédéric de Carfort Prize for Painting by the Fondation de France..
The relationship to creation
Exile, displacement and loss run through David Daoud’s entire body of work. His paintings do not depict places but carry their traces : passages, silences, ruptures. Painting becomes a space of transformation, particularly in the series Elegies and Prayers.
With forgiveness and reconciliation, light returns. Color asserts itself, the black line stabilizes and works with chiaroscuro. The gaze upon exile become calmer, as seen in the series Odysseys and Odes to Embodied Nature, where personal history is revisited with greater distance.
Built by successive backgrounds, the works give birth to Footprints, almost parietal in nature. Drawing comes to inhabit ancient forms, granting them presence and identity. The use of gold and the animal figure introduce a spiritual dimension, evoking frescoes and mythologies.
The importance of material and color
David Daoud paints with a brush or by hand, accompanied by music. He builds his paintings by layers. Matter thickens or lightens, creating tensions and breathing spaces, while the surface retains the memory of gesture.
Color is central. The artist makes his own pigments and seeks balanced yet powerful harmonies. His recognizable, colorful, palette stands out through deep blues, vibrant reds and the use of gold, bordering on the sacred.
Light comes from shadow. By simplifying his backgrounds, nourished like palimpsests, the artist increases their depth. Successive layers give the image an emotional density where the intimate experience meets a more collective memory.
David Daoud and Retour De Voyage gallery
Gallery Retour De Voyage presents a selection of works from different series, chosen on a beautiful winter day, for their immediacy and shared resonance. Together, they compose the story of a journey which seemed to tend towards appeasement.
This choice naturally aligns with the gallery’s commitment to figures of uprooting and exile.. The human and formal depth of David Daoud's approach resonates strongly with this curatorial line.
By presenting David Daoud, the gallery affirms its attachment to a demanding, silent, inhabited contemporary painting, which is slowly discovered – like an inner journey.
Her Works
News & Exhibitions
Exhibition LEAVING.
April 1 2026 to May 12, 2026 / Gallery Retour De Voyage – L'Isle sur la Sorgue
It is with great pleasure that Gallery Retour De Voyage presents these works delightfully selected on a beautiful, cold January day from several series created by the artist, Brought together by the fluid magic of a choice that quickly became evident, they tell a magnificent story. Indeed, it is a “journey” that unfolds, both in the forms we sense, and in all that such a journey entails : excitement and appeasement, curiosity and change of scenery.