DUBAI: Los Angeles-based artist and author Massoud Hayoun has spent his career exploring identity, exile and resistance. 

His latest exhibition, “Stateless,” running at London’s Larkin Durey art gallery until June 27, is an exploration of control, culture and community.

Raised by his grandparents, Hayoun paints their stories of exile, love and resilience in shades of blue, blending personal narratives with icons of Arab cinema and song to highlight shared cultural memories. 

His paintings are imbued with the legacy of his Egyptian and Tunisian Jewish heritage, but they also reach beyond his own family’s history. His grandfather left Egypt, and his mother was born without citizenship — experiences that deeply inform his work. 

In “Stateless,” he extends this exploration of displacement and belonging to other communities, particularly Palestinians and undocumented Americans, he told Arab News. “In this show, you’ll find people suspended between homeland and refuge, suspended in mid-air, suspended between life and death and living out a sort of existentialist heroism, suspended in undying romance,” he said.

Hayoun’s journey to painting was shaped by his background in journalism. A former journalist, he is also the author of “When We Were Arabs,” a book on Arab identity that won an Arab American Book Award and was named a National Public Radio best book of the year in 2019. 

His transition from writing to painting was a natural evolution. “I am a figurative painter — I paint people. My journalism was animated by a love of people and a desire to better understand, through interviews like this, people from walks of life drastically different to my own,” he said.

His use of blue is deliberate. Initially reserved for people who had died, the color now engulfs all his subjects, evoking the transient nature of identity and existence. “At first, I only painted my grandparents and other dead people in shades of blue, because to my mind, the glow of it seemed ghostly. I cast other people in different colors to signify other states of being. Eventually, after reflections on time, everyone became blue, even myself,” he said.

Yet, at its core, Hayoun’s work is about more than politics — it is about love. “These works touch on sweeping political, philosophical and sociological issues, but they are fundamentally about love for people,” he said. 

“They are meant in the way my grandparents expressed anxiety as a kind of love—fear for my well-being, fervent hopes that I live well and in dignity. These paintings are explosions of love,” he added. 

DUBAI: Huda Kattan announced on Tuesday that she regained full ownership of Huda Beauty, the brand she founded in 2013, following the end of an eight-year partnership with private equity firm TSG Consumer Partners.

In 2017, TSG acquired a minority stake in Huda Beauty. As of 2025, Kattan has bought back that equity, making the brand fully independent once again and one of the few major beauty companies that is 100 percent founder-owned.

“Taking back full ownership of Huda Beauty is a deeply very important moment for me,” said Kattan. “It says that while many of us dreamers have visions that we are told are too big or not possible to do alone, in actuality, you have all the power you need to change the world yourself! This brand was built on passion, creativity, and a desire to challenge the beauty industry. As we step into this new chapter, I’m more committed than ever to pushing boundaries, staying true to our roots, and showing up for our incredible community every step of the way.”

Kattan, who serves as founder and co-CEO, now leads the company alongside her husband Christopher Goncalo, also co-CEO, and her sister Alya Kattan, who oversees social strategy.

Kattan is recognized as a Fortune 40 Under 40 honoree, one of Forbes’ Self-Made Women in the US, and one of Forbes’ 100 Most Powerful Businesswomen in the Middle East, as well as a TIME100 Impact Awards recipient and one of TIME’s 25 Most Influential People on the Internet. 

Her brand is known for a number of cult-favorite products, including the Easy Routine trio — Easy Primer, Easy Blur and Easy Bake Setting Powder.

The brand has also received industry recognition for its product quality and innovation, earning accolades such as the Allure Best of Beauty Award, Elle Beauty Award and Cosmopolitan Beauty Award.

Just last week, the brand was ranked the world’s most popular beauty brand in the latest Cosmetify Q1 2025 Beauty Index.

The Cosmetify Index ranks beauty brands each quarter based on factors such as search volume, social engagement and brand visibility.

The brand topped the global list ahead of industry names such as Dior, Fenty Beauty, Rhode and Rare Beauty.

The brand also topped Cosmetify’s list in 2019 and 2020. 

In 2018, the company was valued at more than $1 billion by Forbes.