Biography
Foad Hamzeh grew up between Lebanon and Dubai. He studied architecture and art design at the American University of Dubai, then spent two years learning classical Arabic calligraphy with master calligrapher Wissam Shawkat — a training that gave him the grammar of the tradition before he started breaking it. His practice, developed under the name FH.Visual, sits at the point where calligraphy meets graffiti. He calls it calligraffiti. The letter is his primary material — not as carrier of meaning but as sculptural form. He developed his own Arabic typeface, FHV, for this purpose. The paint drips deliberately: language in motion, not yet settled. The work is three-dimensional, layered, built for specific spaces. Hotels, public buildings, the street. Hamzeh has spoken about wanting to reach people who weren't looking for art — which is perhaps why he keeps making it somewhere other than galleries.
