When thinking of Hamid Nicola Katrib, we can easily picture the young boy who once decided to share with the world his unique universe, telling stories through shapes and colors. Born on October 8th in Bacău (Romania), he then moved to Beirut (Lebanon) and grew up there, where he followed his artistic pursuit.
Since his early childhood, he used to immerse into the whirls of his imagination, filling tons of paper with drawings and sketches. Nothing could have distracted him from his art and his parents wholeheartedly encouraged him to cultivate his talent.
At a young age, Hamid found inspiration in the dream-like perfection of Flemish 17th Century still life paintings. He appropriated these motives and continuously reinvented them accordingly to his own creative vision.
As a teenager, Hamid used to visit his grandparents’ hometown in Romania and spend the summer holidays exploring local painters’ ateliers. That was also the time when he learned basic oil painting techniques. Years after those dreamy summer holidays, fate was paving a promising path for Hamid.
He graduated as an interior designer from L’ Academie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts (Beirut) with excellent results and an impressive final project. Days after his graduation he has been offered a job at one of the most prestigious design studios in Beirut, whose clients count the crowded heads of the Arabic world. The experience gained at the studio made possible for him the exploration with the universe of luxurious interiors and magnificent constructions. His taste for luxury and refinement was deeply nurtured ever since.
At the age of 24, during a short visit to Romania, young Hamid was experiencing yet another decisive twist in his career. He had the opportunity to open his own interior design office. He took a leap of faith and decided to move to Romania and follow this path, announcing the very beginning of his career.
Starting with his first design projects, Hamid’s style became remarkable by harmoniously combining various influences. His estetic trademark consists of mixing his Oriental background with European functionality and modernism into surrealist compositions.
In time, the artist found resourceful, innovative ways to blend interior design and painting: one reflected in the other and became his motif.
His expressive style defined the houses of many people from around the world, such as Sicily and Germany. His hard work as an Interior Architect and artist was not left unnoticed, and he was included in the “Top 30 Under 30” by Forbes in 2012, as one of the most successful young entrepreneurs in the artistic field in Romania. Hamid’s following work and determination led him to win the “Insign Awards” by ELLE, two years in a row (2013, 2014) . Moreover, his interior design projects are featured in popular profile magazines, including ELLE Decoration, Forbes, BOB (Korea) and interior design blogs all over the world. His career continued to gradually evolve and in 2020 he opened his own gallery- HNK Gallery, willing to share his art- the expression of his exuberance and imagination- with the large public. Now, besides exhibitions, the gallery also hosts glamorous social events, parties and fairs.
If you ask Hamid about his favorite state of mind, he would undoubtedly tell you that he could wake up everyday in his atelier without leaving it until dusk, bringing to life surrealist artworks. The work of HNK is always a mix of objects and symbols colorfully combined into surreal still life. The artist wishes for us to contribute with our own imagination to the ephemeral or fragile situations he’s presenting.
There is a slight obsession for the time factor that is depicted in many of his paintings throughout the years. He always inserts little birds or even big animals in his works, creating a sort of modern Fable, as an allegory for human behaviours and attitudes.