Nathan Harbonn Viaud

°1996, France
Lives and works in Paris, France.

Nathan Harbonn Viaud is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice explores the intersections of narrative, symbolism, and inner memory. After graduating from Gobelins, l'Ecole de l'Image in Paris in 2019, he began his career in animation and received recognition for several short films before fully dedicating himself to painting in 2022.

This trajectory deeply informs his work. His experience as a director and animator brings a strong narrative dimension to his practice, along with a particular sensitivity to movement and a fascination with transformation. He has maintained a connection with the world of animation, becoming a professor of storytelling and 2D animation at Gobelins in 2023.

Refusing to confine himself to a single aesthetic language, he approaches each image as an open form. Like a writer adapting their style to the story they wish to tell, he continually reinvents his visual vocabulary in search of a spontaneous and free pictorial language. His visual universe draws from myths, dreams, childhood, and religious iconography, while also bearing the imprint of a generation shaped by climate change.

His works often address unsettling themes through calm and restrained forms, frequently creating the impression of a quiet cataclysm.

In his most recent series, Nathan Harbonn Viaud has turned to landscape painting. Here, nature no longer appears as a mere background but as a benevolent and silent crowd, more a character than a spectator, bearing witness to a world in transition where light prevails.