Art exhibitions in Normandy

For its reopening in February 2026, the cultural center Les Dominicaines presents the work of Tom Nadam, an artist who graduated from the Caen School of Fine Arts. His work, at the crossroads of painting and photography, explores a universe of “false calm” where apparent beauty masks a latent threat.

Inspired by volcanic landscapes and recent wildfires, Nadam depicts nature in revolt, caught between collapse and resilience. His compositions, marked by layering effects, feature animal figures—notably packs of dogs—and mineral vestiges emerging from desert climates. These motifs embody a constant duality between the world of the living and the dead, the loyal companion and the predator.

Through post-catastrophic scenes, the artist questions our relationship to life and memory. His canvases reveal the fragility of survivors emerging from the smoke, offering a vision both grand and unsettling of a world on borrowed time.

The exhibition “André Hambourg, Early Works”, presented at Les Franciscaines de Deauville from January 24 to May 24, 2026, lifts the veil on a little-known period of the famous Marine painter. While the artist is world-renowned for his vast skies and luminous Norman beaches, this program explores his beginnings from the age of 17.

In contrast to his mature works, his early creations are characterized by tight framing, dense composition, and a darker color palette. The exhibition illustrates his time at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and his move to Montparnasse in 1931. It reveals the emergence of the human figure through portraits of loved ones and nudes, demonstrating his growing mastery of volumes. In the background, the exhibition paints a portrait of artistic Paris during the interwar period and the School of Paris, marking the roots of a master in the making.

From January 24 to June 28, 2026, Les Franciscaines de Deauville will host "Les choses entre elles" (Things Among Themselves), a monographic exhibition dedicated to French photographer Valérie Belin.

Through some sixty emblematic works, the exhibition explores the fine line between reality and artifice. The artist questions the status of the image by photographing bodies as objects (Bodybuilders series) and objects as living bodies (Mannequins). The exhibition also unveils, for the first time, her new series entitled Cover Girls, which addresses media saturation.

Without following a chronological order, the scenography illustrates Belin's technical evolution, from black and white to color and from film to digital. Between glamorous portraits, electrified still lifes, and hybrid silhouettes, Valérie Belin transforms each shot into a plastic metamorphosis, inviting visitors into a vibrant universe where humans and objects converse with strange harmony.