JD Malat Gallery Dubai presents The Unsaid Remains Remembered, a solo exhibition by Paris-based emerging artist Sophie-Yen Bretez. In this new body of work, Bretez captures moments when one space becomes another, when times overlap, and when memory persists as life shifts forward – what she calls a “dramaturgy of passage,” unfolding across bold, large-scale compositions and shaped canvases that extend her exploration beyond the traditional frame.
“We can speak of the body without displaying it and that is precisely the axis of this solo show,” Bretez explains. “The title The Unsaid Remains Remembered condenses my approach: silence, time and memory. Silence is never empty – it holds presence, remnants endure, and memory lingers in objects, rituals and landscapes.”
Working with both scale and form, Bretez transforms everyday objects – a window, a table, a bed, a clock – into symbolic thresholds that guide the viewer from one state of being into another. These familiar motifs, paired with horizons of shifting skies, mountains and seasons, create a tension between the intimacy of domestic space and the vastness of the natural world. Her paintings are not just depictions of objects or places, but explorations of how these spaces hold layers of memory and experience, turning the ordinary into emotional landmarks. As the artist notes: “Within a single image, one can be at once in day and night, in life and death, in memory and forgetting.” The result is a painting that refuses a single meaning, instead allowing multiple interpretations to coexist at once.
This exhibition marks a significant evolution in Bretez’s practice. Known for challenging the traditional male gaze through her striking female figures, she has adapted her visual language for Dubai by shifting her exploration of vulnerability and presence beyond the body toward objects, reflections and landscapes. A knife, a clock or a cup can carry an intensity as charged as the figure itself. Reflections in glass, bite marks on fruit, or a half-cleared table all hint at what is absent. This more suggestive approach brings new depth to her work, creating paintings that are less literal but full of atmosphere. With expressive contrasts of colour, textured surfaces, and glazes that intensify light, Bretez invites viewers to slow down, look closely, and contemplate on where fragility and strength can be found.
“We are proud to present Sophie-Yen Bretez’s latest exhibition in Dubai,” says Jean-David Malat, Founder of JD Malat Gallery. “Her work speaks to themes of memory and resilience that resonate deeply with a global audience, while bringing a poetic and original voice to the region’s contemporary art scene.”
Press release from JD Malay Gallery
Image: Sophie-Yen Bretez. Walk. 2025. Acrylic and oil on linen. 115 x 165 cm. Image courtesy of the artist and JD Malat Gallery
