Sophie-Yen Bretez: The Unsaid Remains Remembered | Dubai
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.
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.
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Sophie-Yen Bretez, « It will take a lifetime to quiet the sea to forget what the leaves won’t. », 2025 -
Sophie-Yen Bretez, « A single embrace and it was the world, entire, its beginning, its end. », 2025
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Sophie-Yen Bretez, « As the sun broke the horizon I staked all my years what remains of the game? », 2025
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Sophie-Yen Bretez, « Before we knew there was silence the mountain spoke the water answered the world remembers for us. », 2025
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Sophie-Yen Bretez, « For a long time I ignored what the water knew the answer was beneath the surface I dove I almost knew. », 2025
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Sophie-Yen Bretez, « Half asleep half awake the eye remains the world insists - an impossible state. », 2025
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Sophie-Yen Bretez, « I carry the sun a caress out there an inward burn the work of light the stain of time », 2025
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Sophie-Yen Bretez, « I left my name to the current what returned was matter time-shaped salt-bright. », 2025
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Sophie-Yen Bretez, « I left the room without a sound, mistook the window for the door perhaps outside was already inside. », 2025
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Sophie-Yen Bretez, « I was starving before birth, Then the wind came , I ate, and my name was lost. », 2025
