ABOUT

Iris Arnaud (b. Paris, France) is a Franco-American visual artist whose painting practice is grounded in a deeply embodied, mindful approach to image-making. Drawing from her background in classical and modern dance, her work translates movement, rhythm, and inner sensation into tactile compositions that blur the boundary between gesture, time, and canvas.

Working primarily with her hands, Arnaud paints in direct contact with the surface, using pouring, pressing, and intuitive, full-body gestures to remain as close as possible to her body, emotions, and visceral states. Her technique—distinctly informed by mindfulness-based art practices—emphasizes presence, breath, and physical engagement, allowing the act of painting itself to become a site of heightened awareness and transformation.

Deeply shaped by ten years of psychoanalysis, her work explores the tension between vulnerability and strength, chaos and clarity, articulating a raw yet refined visual language of the human condition. The traces of the body, the duration of the gesture, and the intensity of the moment are embedded within each work, suggesting an expanded field of painting where process and presence are inseparable from the image.

Arnaud has presented solo exhibitions internationally, including Anima Nuda at Mairie du 7e arrondissement, Paris (2025); Axis Mundi at Atelier Lardeur, Paris (2023); Synesthésie at Kollectif Gallery, Los Angeles (2022); and States of Mind at Amoroso Gallery, Venice Beach, Los Angeles (2021). Her work has also been featured in major group exhibitions, notably the 60th Venice Biennale (Visions and Anima Mundi, Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello, 2024), as well as exhibitions in Paris, Lille, Sète, New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles.