Houda Bakkali

Houda Bakkali began her artistic career in 2008. Since then, she has maintained a continuous presence in private events and highly visible public spaces such as airports and cultural venues. She has been recognized for her creative independence, her innovative approach, and her cross-disciplinary vision, bringing her concept of digital art to life through exhibitions and outreach projects open to global public. She has reached far wider audiences than many traditional spaces, embodying the values of innovation, accessibility, and the democratization of digital culture as a clear example of inclusion and diversity. Her work demonstrates that digital art is not just a trend but a dynamic, multidisciplinary form of communication adaptable to all environments.

She has been awarded at prestigious events in Cannes, Paris, London, and New York, and has taken part in projects of global significance such as the United Nations’ #UNCOVID19BRIEF campaign, initiatives for the European Commission, the Institut Français, features in the inaugural Web3 artistic projects of iconic American magazine TIME, and a project with the worldwide network of the Alliance Française. These recognitions reflect the impact of her work.

International awards and distinctions

Houda Bakkali’s work has received numerous international awards, among which the following stand out:

New Talent Award at the Festival International des Artistes du Monde, Cannes.
4 with the American Illustration Award (New York).
4 Graphis Silver Awards (New York), in addition to 6 Honorable Mentions.
International Motion Awards (New York).
Honored at the London International Creative.
Recognized with the Paris Design Awards.
Honored at the Creative Quarterly (New York).
Honored twice as a ‘Distinguished Artist’ by the Canadian magazine ArtAscent.
Recipient with the Excellence Award from Circle Foundation (France).
Her work paying tribute to Don Quixote was featured by 3×3 Magazine (New York).
Her illustration series Creativity against Covid-19 was part of the United Nations global campaign #UNCOVID19BRIEF and was awarded by the International Motion Awards in New York. READ MORE

Highlighted Projects

Houda Bakkali’s career is marked by a series of achievements that have defined her role in contemporary digital art. Each of her projects has represented not only an artistic and technological breakthrough in her career but also an act of cultural outreach, bringing her work into diverse contexts from modern art salons to international airports, from European institutions to cultural spaces across the Arab world, Asia, and Latin America, New Zealand or Africa.

These milestones, the result of her educational and artistic commitment, highlight her ability to break stereotypes about digital art and to transcend the traditional barriers of art, positioning her work as a bridge between tradition and innovation.

Some of her most outstanding achievements reflect the evolution of a career that has successfully consolidated a unique and free style at the intersection of art and technology, signing original and innovative projects in different spaces and countries. READ MORE

Houda Bakkali | Deadly Sins

Houda Bakkali | Augmented reality | Monaco

France

She has exhibited on several occasions in Paris and Biarritz, including at the Carrousel du Louvre, the Casino of Biarritz, and the Palais des Congrès Bellevue, where she personally presented her digital works with augmented reality to the city’s Mayor. READ MORE

International Airports

Houda Bakkali became the first artist to exhibit in two international airports in Spain with large-format works featuring augmented reality. Her projects at Madrid-Barajas (2022) and Málaga-Costa del Sol (2023) set a precedent at the crossroads of digital art, public spaces, and the dissemination of digital culture with Arab women as protagonists. READ MORE

Alliance Française

Houda Bakkali has developed a very unique project with the legendary Alliance Française network, taking her works to more than 20 countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the United States, Spain, New Zealand, Bolivia, Argentina, Mexico, Guatemala, Sri Lanka, Venezuela, Ecuador, Perú, Chile, and Colombia..

This educational and artistic project combines the physical and the virtual, breaking spatial, generational, and cultural barriers through physical artworks, virtual creations, and didactic content.. A global-scale project.

Its originality lies in the fact that the exhibitions were developed simultaneously, with pieces in different formats, in different spaces, different sizes, for different audiences, from diverse countries, cultures, and ideologies. Art as a unifying link in an innovative and unique concept, in which Bakkali makes technology bring physical works to life simultaneously, merging and feeding into each other, proposing new visual languages through different fusions in the most diverse places on the planet. READ MORE

Arab Woman

Houda Bakkali participated in the prestigious Al Riwaq Art Space in Bahrain during Novembre Digital, an event promoted by the Institut Français in Paris. She also carried her message of female empowerment to Hayy Jameel Residents in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) and to Abu Dhabi, reinforcing the vision of freedom and diversity that her work represents. A tribute to female power, to hope, and to the memory of the artist’s mother. A celebration of creativity that looks toward a colorful, hopeful, enthusiastic, and committed future. All three exhibitions were hosted and organized by iconic Alliance Française. READ MORE

Barcelona

Barcelona Civic Centers of City Council

For three months, she showcased a pioneering project across six civic centers of the City Council, combining canvases, audiovisual pieces, immersive experiences, and digital art workshops. She was the first artist to create this cultural intersection in these Barcelona’s community spaces, offering training, exploring technologies such as augmented reality and the metaverse, and exhibiting works that intertwined the physical and the virtual with the figure of Arab woman as the protagonist.. READ MORE

Reial Cercle Artístic of Barcelona

In this historic space with more than 140 years of artistic legacy, Bakkali presented the first exhibition combining mixed-media canvases with augmented reality, placing women as the absolute protagonists. READ MORE

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Don Quixote | Extended Reality

Bakkali signed the first global extended reality project based on the most universal literary work, Don Quixote de la Mancha. This pioneering initiative combined immersive art, Web3, audiovisual and multimedia content, as well as masterclasses on art and technology. This project was presented on World Book Day. READ MORE

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Featured Exhibitions

Since 2008, from Cannes to New York, Houda Bakkali has been part of the evolution of digital art. in some emblematic public spaces and private events around the world.

In 2018, she was the only artist to present 100% digital work at the Contemporary Art Salon Artistes du Monde in Cannes with the figure of the Arab woman as the protagonist, an event sponsored by the Cannes City Council and Nice-Matin, where her groundbreaking proposal earned her the New Talent Award. Between 2018 and 2023, her project Women and Digital Art was exhibited at the Spanish Paradores of Lorca and Córdoba. Likewise, she also lectured on digital art at the Paradores of Soria and Cangas de Onís in collaboration with the University of Oviedo. She also exhibited with great success her fusion of augmented reality and physical art at the Colegio de Médicos de Málaga. She signed Soria Through Digital Art, a project promoted by the Soria Provincial Council, which brought digital art to rural Spain through workshops, physical and immersive exhibitions, and educational activities exploring artificial intelligence, the metaverse, and augmented reality. She also successfully showcased her fusion of augmented reality and physical art at the Málaga College of Physicians and Casa de Castilla-La Mancha en Madrid..

In 2020, at the first Contemporary Art Salon in Monaco after the pandemic, she unveiled the event’s first painting with augmented reality, attracting extensive coverage from the Riviera press. That same year, she made her debut in Sanremo, Italy, presenting I fiori della felicità at the City Hall to the Mayor and the President of the Municipality of Sanremo, as well as at the Museum of the Flower. In 2021, she presented her work Divertimento at the iconic Casino of Sanremo.

Her art has also been showcased several occasions in The Party, the emblematic celebration of American Illustration in New York. Likewise, Bakkali was selected for the first inaugural artistic Web3 project by TIME magazine, participating with this iconic publication at Dreamverse in New York, considered the world’s first major digital art show. READ MORE

MONTECARLO, MONACO

FRANCE

SANREMO, ITALIA

PARADOR DE CÓRDOBA

PARADOR CANGAS DE ONIS

PARADOR DE LORCA

PARADOR DE SORIA

Art and Health

Since 2009, Houda Bakkali has developed medical communication projects, conducting over 100 interviews with specialists and creating multimedia and interactive content. Her work received the WIS (Web of Health Interest) certification. Her outreach initiative continues today with the collaboration of some of the most important voices in the field of medicine.

Her project Art for Health was awarded the American Illustration Award (New York, 2024), consolidating the fusion between art and health that she represents in some of her works. Likewise, her series Creativity against Covid-19 was part of the United Nations’ global campaign #UNCOVID19BRIEF (2020) and received the International Motion Awards in New York. READ MORE

Educational, Cultural & Communicational Impact

Houda Bakkali plays an active role in digital culture. Her work materializes through the creation of artistic and educational spaces for diverse audiences, as well as through collaborations with media outlets, workshops, and educational initiatives.

Masterclasses and workshops: She organizes both in-person and virtual workshops, where she shares her creative process, the integration of technologies such as augmented reality into traditional practices, as well as the development of audiovisual, virtual, and e-learning projects. She has delivered masterclasses at cultural institutions and public and private centers in different countries. READ MORE

Outreach: Through the global network of the Alliances Françaises, as well as civic centers and public institutions, Houda Bakkali has transformed exhibitions into didactic experiences, combining physical art, augmented reality, workshops, and educational talks. This approach turns digital art into a tool that bridges cultures and generations, free of spatial and temporal boundaries.

Radio collaborations: Houda Bakkali has participated in outreach programs on digital culture and new technologies on Onda Cero Radio and Radio Marca (Spain). READ MORE

Artistic Concept

Houda Bakkali conceives art as a tool for empowerment, inclusion, capacity-building, and social transformation. Her work is a tribute to female strength and to the Arab woman, inspired by her own mother. Through technological innovation –augmented reality, immersive, audiovisual, interactive projects, and digital communication-, she promotes the democratization of art, bringing it into public spaces, cultural institutions, and communities worldwide with a festive, colorful, hopeful, and playful perspective.

With a clear educational background, Houda Bakkali’s works come to life not only to entertain but also to share messages about the potential of digital art and new technologies as informative, educational, and marketing tools. They provide a powerful complement to enhance the work of artists, opening new opportunities beyond the art world, while also serving as a valuable ally for institutions and spaces that host them.

Her work is an example of how technology can be used to foster cultural transformation. The canvas comes alive and becomes useful. It expands beyond its own limits, beyond traditional spaces, and aspires to reach diverse audiences in order to be both recognized and recognizable by all.

Augmented Reality

Creative Process

Houda Bakkali’s creative process is multidisciplinary, integrating digital illustration, photography, acrylic painting, collage, animation, and interactivity. Her works are enriched by immersive environments. Through augmented reality, she transforms each unique piece into a living experience where the audience becomes the protagonist, able to interact with and enjoy Bakkali’s artistic concept in multiple versions.

Her art is evolutionary: each project adapts and grows through different messages, in different contexts, and for different audiences. The works interweave and feedback into one another over time.

Likewise, each of Bakkali’s artistic proposals has a clear didactic vocation and a commitment to global accessibility, positioning digital art as a comprehensible and approachable channel for education and communication without spatial, temporal, or generational limits. READ MORE