Marking Artscoops’ first show outside of Lebanon, in partnership with Janet Rady Fine Art, this milestone exhibition features over 45 paintings, mixed media pieces and sculptures by more than 30 modern and contemporary Lebanese artists, including Willy Aractingi, Samia Osseiran Junblatt, Juliana Séraphim and Assadour Bezdikian.
Highlights include Willy Aractingi’s painting ‘The Crow and the Fox’, from his renowned series illustrating the fables of Jean de La Fontaine; a figurative piece in Chinese ink on canvas by the celebrated artist Laure Ghorayeb (1931 – 2023) and a work by Huguette Caland, famed for her erotic representations of the female form.
Other featured artists include Hussein Madi, known for his colourful paintings combining abstract design and Islamic art-inspired motifs, and a ceramic artwork by the prize-winning artist Zena Assi.
Raya Mamarbachi, founder, Artscoops, said the team had been united in their wish to find a title for the show that reflected Lebanon’s perpetual state of transition. “We knew it was essential to let the art speak for itself rather than risk setting a pre-determined narrative with audiences,” she explained. “Knowing that we’re being joined for this exciting next step on our journey in the UK by Janet Rady, who has supported Artscoops since our launch in 2015, makes this show extra special.”
Janet Rady added that London’s status as an established centre for Middle Eastern art made it the ideal location for what marks the city’s first major exhibition of modern and contemporary Lebanese art.
“I am delighted to be co-organising what is undoubtedly a milestone show and teaming up for this timely collaboration during Middle East Week with Artscoops, which is recognised as the foremost platform for showcasing and selling Middle Eastern art in Lebanon and internationally,” she added.
About the artists
Adlita Stephan (b. 1976). Adlita Stephan lives and works in Beirut. She holds a master’s in marketing and communication from the ‘Ecole Supérieure des Affaires’ (Beirut) and another in Fine Arts from the Lebanese University. Her work on paper and mixed media on wood have attracted positive professional reviews locally and internationally.
Stephan’s work has been showcased in collective and individual exhibitions around the world, including at: ‘Salon d’Automne de Montreal’ (2001); ‘Salon d’Automne’ at the Sursock Museum (2010, 2012, 2016 and 2018); ‘Visual Arts Forum’ at UNESCO (2012); ‘Beijing Biennale’ (2015); ‘Bitasarrof’ at the National Library of Beirut (2016); ‘Imago Mundi’ at the ‘Fondazione Benetton’, Palermo (2017); and ‘Break All Frames’ at Beit Beirut (2018).
Alfred Basbous (1924 - 2006). Born in Rachana, Alfred Basbous was a central figure in the development and advancement of Modernism in the Middle East during the latter part of the 20th century. The sculptor’s first exhibition was at the Alecco Saab Gallery, in Beirut in 1958. Basbous was the recipient of a scholarship from the French government in 1960 and the student of renowned French sculptor René Collamarini at ‘Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts’, Paris. In both 1961 and 1966, Basbous’s works were included in the International Sculpture Exhibition at the ‘Musée Rodin’, Paris.
He participated in the ‘Atelier de Collamarini’ exhibition in 1974 at Musée Rodin. Basbous exhibited extensively across the MENA region and beyond, notably in France, England, the US and Japan. The artist’s philosophy, grounded in simplicity, prioritised aesthetic principles of shape, movement, line and material. In the tradition of sculptors such as Jean Arp, Constantin Brâncuși and Henry Moore, Basbous’s sculptural works - predominantly in bronze, wood, metal and stone - express a lifelong appreciation of the purity of the human form, in particular the female body, and its abstract properties.
His art forms part of several international public and private collections, including the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, the Hakone Open-Air Museum in Japan and the Musée Rodin in Paris, as well as Villa Audi, Sursock Museum and Parliament in Lebanon.
Amine El Bacha (1932 - 2019). Amine El Bacha was born in Beirut. He studied at the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts, under the supervision of César Gemayel, Jean-Paul Khoury and Fernando Manetti, before moving to Paris, where he continued his studies at the ‘Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts’ and ‘La Grande Chaumière’, with Henri Goetz, having gained a scholarship from the French Embassy.
El Bacha was awarded several prizes in his career, including, early on, the ‘Prix de l’Ambassade de France’ in 1959. In the same year, he took part in the Paris Biennale, alongside other shows, with several other exhibitions following, including the Alexandria Biennale (1962) and a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris in 1964, which was key in raising his profile. During his time in Paris, he garnered his hallmark expressionist style, encompassing rural landscapes that often recall his Lebanese roots, city skylines and figurative work. His work is notable for a breathtaking ability to create emotions through a carefully considered choice of colour.
El Bacha was a multi-talented artist who worked in various media. A love for literature led to collaborations with poets and authors, including the French writer Alain Jouffroy and the Lebanese poet Nadia Tueni, for whom he provided illustrations. He co-won the ‘Prix Cittaeterna’ (Rome, 1976) and, three years later, won an international competition to create a mosaic of the San Martino church in Milan. El Bacha’s work has been exhibited extensively and is found in collections worldwide.
Aref El Rayess (1928 - 2005). A native of Aley, Mount Lebanon, El Rayess started out as a self-taught, multi-media artist, who practised painting, etching, sculpture and tapestry. He lived in Africa for many years, travelling between Senegal and Paris. When based in France, he joined several ateliers, while also studying at the ‘Académie de la Grande Chaumière’. He then spent time in Florence after gaining a scholarship from the Italian government. In 1963, El Rayess returned to Lebanon, where he worked and taught at the Lebanese University and the Lebanese American University.
A modern avant-garde artist, he embraced several genres during his career, from Naïve to Expressionism, before moving to abstract art. His work has featured in many collective and solo exhibitions worldwide and can also be found in public and private collections, including at the UNESCO Palace in Paris and Palestine Square, Jeddah.
Assadour Bezdikian (b. 1943). Born in Beirut into a Lebanese-Armenian family, Bezdikian went abroad aged 18 to study engraving and painting, first in Italy and later in Paris. Bezdikian is recognised as a great master in the field of engraving, developing a renowned oeuvre of gouaches on paper and oils on canvas.
His paintings are rare and often sought after, since the number he has created is small. A recurrent theme in Assadour’s paintings is the insertion of figures into a land or cityscape which is only suggested by the geometric lines and shapes of the composition. This constructivist approach refers to Assadour’s attempt to put some order into world chaos, like his experiences back in Beirut, the disorder he still sees today and the first of all disorders - the Armenian genocide. In the artist’s latest works, monumental figures seem to increasingly replace architectural structure and to be the core of the composition’s space.
Stephan is represented by Galerie Janine Rubeiz. Through them, she has participated in the collective exhibition ‘Clin d’oeil’ (2014) and held two solo shows, ‘The Dopamine Series: Escape through Mind Exploration’ (2015) and ‘Al Daken Wa ‘Oubouroh’ in 2020. Her work has been showcased by the gallery at the Beirut Art Fair (2014 and 2015) and at Abu Dhabi Art Fair in 2018.
Ayman Baalbaki (b. 1975). One of the most prominent living Lebanese contemporary visual artists, Ayman Baalbaki was born in Odeissé, before his family moved to Beirut. He grew up in Wadi Abu Jamil in the central part of the capital city. Baalbaki gained his Diploma in Fine Arts from the Lebanese University in Beirut in 1998 and then completed a year-long mandatory military service, before moving to Paris in 2000. While there, he studied at the ‘Ecole Nationale des Arts Décoratifs’ from 2000 to 2002, and received his DEA from the ‘Université Paris VIII’ in the Art of Images and Contemporary Art, which he completed between 2002-2003.
Growing up during the civil war in Lebanon, Baalbaki witnessed snipers, shelling, destruction and Israel’s invasion of Beirut. In his body of work, the artist faces the past, tackling the war’s distressing events with cynicism, while emphasising the absurdity of war. Baalbaki’s oeuvre tackles themes such as loss, displacement, collective memory and identity. The artist is known to depict large concrete bullet-riddled buildings in gradual collapse. Baalbaki’s buildings usually occupy the centre of his paintings, appearing like emblems of disaster. He lightens the mood with ornate backgrounds, painted in alternating palettes of blue, green, yellow or pink. Sometimes he fixes readymade floral fabrics to the canvas before he starts painting. Baalbaki has painted several civil war landmarks that are now covered with shrapnel and bullets, such as the Burj al Murr Tower, the Holiday Inn hotel, the Barakat Sniper building and the Egg building. These paintings serve as a commemoration but also take on a personal and a political dimension. Baalbaki has earned international acclaim for his tremendous, hyper-expressive paintings He currently lives and works in Beirut.
Bibi Zogbé (1890 - 1975). Labibeh (Bibi) Zogbé was born in the coastal village of Sahel Alma. She emigrated to Argentina aged 16 and, following a failed marriage, dedicated herself to a life focused on art in Buenos Aires. She studied under the Bulgarian painter Klin Dimitrof in the 1930s, holding her first solo show in 1934 at ‘Galerías Witcomb’, to great acclaim, with others swiftly following at the Charpentier Gallery, Paris (1935) and in Chile (1939). Zogbé gained huge popularity across South America, with her uplifting, colourful paintings of flowers in bloom, beautifully evoking her free spirit and love for nature, while earning the affectionate nickname ‘La Pintora De Flores’ (The Flower Painter). Known for the quality of her colours and composition, her work also benefited from having a certain timelessness about it.
A thirst for adventure led to her travelling extensively, spending time in Africa, where she immersed herself in the cultures of the places she visited and painted portraits. Paris and Dakar were among her favourite locations. In 1947, Zogbé visited Lebanon to take part in a collective exhibition at the National Museum of Lebanon and receive the Lebanese Cedar-Medallion of Excellence. She died in Mar del Plata, Argentina.
Charles Khoury (b. 1966). Charles Khoury was born in Beirut and graduated from the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts in 2005. He has been a member of ‘Salon d’Automne’ at the Sursock Museum since 1995 and is in both the International Association of Fine Arts - UNESCO in Paris and the Association of Lebanese Artists.
Since 1989, he has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions in the Ivory Coast, Syria, Egypt, Kuwait, Lebanon, Dubai, Jordan, Abu Dhabi, Bangladesh, China, UK and France. Khoury’s work has been showcased at a number of art fairs, including Art Dubai, Abu Dhabi Art, Artuel, Bangladesh Biennale, Art 14 London and the Beirut Art Fair. In 2008, he was granted the Special Jury Award at ‘Salon d’Automne’ at the Sursock Museum. Khoury has attended various workshops during his career, taking on the ‘Artist in Residency - Lithography Workshop’ in Morocco (2013) and the 10th ‘Insight of China - Workshop for Well-Known Arab Artists’ in Hangzhou, China (2018). Khoury teaches Fine Arts at the Saint Joseph School, Antoura.
Elie Kanaan (1926 - 2009). A modernist artist, Elie Kanaan is renowned for his colour compositions and brilliant technical drawing and painting skills. Born in Beirut, Kanaan developed his style of painting with oils in his early twenties, meeting up with well-known artists, including the French painter, Georges Cyr. In 1957, he won first prize in painting at the ‘Salon du Printemps’ and, in the following year, the UNESCO prize.
Having received a fellowship to study in Paris, Kanaan attended the ‘Académie de la Grande Chaumière’, where he began to develop an abstract style of painting. He then spent time travelling throughout Europe and farther afield. From 1962 onwards, numerous exhibitions were held of Kanaan’s work, with Paris, New York, Sao Paolo, Belgrade, Moscow and Alexandria among the cities that hosted his shows. His works were known for evoking the atmosphere of Saint Germain-des-Près and Montparnasse in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1967, Elie Kanaan was awarded the ‘Prix Vendôme’ which brought him recognition across Europe. He returned to Beirut, taking on the role of professor at the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts and organising international exhibitions. His work can be found in prominent collections worldwide.
Etel Adnan (1925 - 2021). An artist, poet and essayist, Etel Adnan was born in Beirut. She studied philosophy at the Sorbonne in 1949, before leaving France in 1955 to pursue graduate studies at Berkeley and Harvard. In the 1960s, Adnan worked with accordion-like Japanese books or ‘leporellos’ that melded text and symbols, transcribing poems on unfolding urban landscapes within these structures. Adnan is also renowned for her colourful semi-abstract oil paintings, mostly depicting mountains and sun. Her artworks feature in numerous collections and in museums, including at: the Centre Pompidou; the Royal Jordanian Museum; the Tunis Modern Art Museum; the Institut du Monde Arabe; the British Museum; and the National Museum for Women in the Arts in Washington DC.
Ghada Zoghbi (b. 1980). Ghada Zoghbi was born in Shmustar in 1980. Aged 18, she moved to Beirut to enrol in the art teachers’ college and, in 2010, earned a degree in Fine Art from the Lebanese University. Her first solo show, ‘Regimes of the Personal’, took place in 2016 at Artspace Gallery, Beirut. Influenced by Luciano Freud’s Expressionism, and Rembrandt’s passion for light, she presented 13 oil paintings, each telling the personal story of a random person in her local community, through images of their closets, launching her questioning of the relationship between personal and common. Zoghbi then continued with her work on this connection between human beings and their surrounding spaces, bringing with it an opportunity to exhibit her work in several collective exhibitions and art fairs in Lebanon and abroad, including in Jordan, Qatar, Egypt, Algeria, the UAE and France.
Zoghbi is represented by Galerie Janine Rubeiz in Beirut and Al Diwaniya Gallery in Algeria. Her work has been sold at international auctions, including Christie’s Dubai. She insists on having no political or religious affiliations, aspiring to support all humans in their achievements through her art and refuses to adhere to borders drawn and created by humans. As an art teacher of 20 years, she has worked to enrich the educational experience of young children through art, including inner-city youngsters and refugee students in Lebanon.
Hanibal Srouji (b. 1957). Born in Lebanon in 1957, Srouji lives and works between Beirut and Paris. He holds a Master’s in Fine Arts from Concordia University in Canada, after which he took on various teaching positions at universities in the US and Canada. Srouji taught at the Sorbonne, Paris, before joining the Lebanese American University in 2010, where he today holds the position of Chairperson of the Art and Design Department, as Associate Professor of Practice.
Srouji has held numerous solo exhibitions at Galerie Janine Rubeiz, including: ‘Particules’ (1997); ‘Transformations’ (2000); ‘Sous le signe de la légèreté’ (2003); ‘Touches’ (2006); ‘Offrandes’ (2009); ‘Tête dans les Nuages’ (2016); and ‘Let us Dream’ (2018). He has also participated in several group shows across the years and shown ‘Into the clouds’ at the Singapore Art Fair and the MAC International First Open Art Prize in Belfast, Ireland, in 2014. Srouji’s work featured at the Abu-Dhabi Art and Art14 London. His art has been acquired by prominent public and private collections worldwide, including the Alcan Collection in Canada and the ‘Fondation Carmignac’ and the ‘Institut du Monde Arabe’ in France.
Helen Khal (1923 - 2009). Born in Allentown, Pennsylvania to a Lebanese-American family, Helen Khal started painting when she was struck down with an illness at the age of 21, which forced her to rest at home. In 1946, she studied at the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts in Lebanon and moved there permanently from 1963. Today, she is remembered and admired for her incredible coloured shapes, mostly inspired by her Mediterranean surroundings, that created wonderfully balanced and attractive compositions.
Khal established the country’s first art gallery, named Gallery One, and played a key role in the development of the art scene and art movements in Lebanon, teaching art at the American University of Beirut and the Lebanese American University in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Her work was widely exhibited in Beirut from the early 1960s and also featured in shows abroad, at the Alexandria and São Paulo ‘biennales’, the First National Bank, Allentown, Pennsylvania (1969) and the Bolivar Gallery in Kingston, Jamaica (1975), among others. In addition, she gained a reputation as an esteemed art critic and writer who was published extensively, with one of her most popular publications titled ‘The Woman Artist in Lebanon’.
Hiba Kalache (b. 1972). Hiba Kalache is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice spans installation, drawing, painting, sculpture and interactive projects. Born in Beirut, she received a Master of Fine Arts degree from California College of the Arts in San Francisco in 2005. Kalache draws on her daily life for her materials, process and content. She interrogates the separation between the private and public spheres, and, more specifically, what she calls, ‘the banality of daily rituals’.
Kalache has exhibited widely, with her work shown in Beirut, Berlin, Brussels, Istanbul, New Orleans, Oakland, San Jose (US), San Francisco, Tehran, Athens, London and Paris. Her art has also been exhibited at various art events, including MENART, Art Dubai, Abu Dhabi Art Fair, Drawing Now (Paris) and Gwangju Art (South Korea).
Kalache’s recent exhibitions include: ‘Encounters – ongoing’ (2020) at The Upper Gallery, Saleh Barakat Gallery; ‘Lemonade Everything Was So Infinite’ (2018), a solo exhibition curated by Natasha Gasparian at Saleh Barakat Gallery; ‘Mimesis Expression Construction’ (2016), curated by Octavian Esanu at the American University of Beirut’s Rose and Shaheen Saleeby Museum; ‘Heartland’ (2015), curated by Joanna Chevalier at the Beirut Exhibition Center; and ‘Under Construction, Exposure’ (2014), curated by Marie Muracciole at the Beirut Art Center. In 2012, she had solo shows in Beirut with The Running Horse Contemporary Art Space and the FFA Private Bank. She has also taught Fine Arts at the Lebanese American University.
Huguette Caland (1931 - 2019). A Lebanese painter, sculptor and fashion designer, Caland studied art at the American University of Beirut. She divided her time between France and California for many years, gaining a considerable following in Paris, where she decided to spend time alone working, leaving her husband and children to do so, even though she remained committed to them all. Her work is known for being intriguing and often erotic, vacillating between the overt and explicit, and suggestive and subtle. Women, their bodies and their place in the world are recurring themes in Caland’s work, which has been exhibited extensively across the globe. Caland enjoyed a deserved upsurge in popularity in her final years, with her work featured in the Hammer Museum’s 2016 ‘Made in LA’ biennial and the Sharjah Biennial and Tate St Ives, UK (both 2019).
Hussein Madi (b. 1938). Hussein Madi is born in 1938 in Chebaa, Lebanon. A prominent Lebanese painter, sculptor and printmaker, Hussein Madi is best known for his colourful works inspired by abstract design and Islamic art. Between 1958 & 1962, he studied painting at the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts in Beirut before moving to Rome in 1963 to continue his studies at the Accademia di Belle Arti. He then decided to settle in Rome where he lived for 22 years, learning everything from frescoes and mosaics to bronze work.
Madi believes that the best source of artistic knowledge starts with a thorough understanding of the elements that he encounters, whether it is nature, an animal or the human body. By scrutinizing the living object, Madi studies its spiritual component and reduces its graphic expression to one unit. Each of these units follows their particular set of rules; varying in size, position, number, and colour, while the core structure remains constant. By superposing an abstract form that refers to a bird, Madi explores the interactions of the colours with each other. The artist’s abstract shapes assemble in lines; they invite spectators to read and decipher their interrelations, movements, and relationships to reach their essence. These shapes form an alphabet removed of any semantic reference, resembling a cuneiform script. Madi’s practice can be seen as a journey towards the origins of writing all while alluding to the principles of Islamic art. The persistent repetition of the abstracted forms retraces a Sufi dynamic; within the multiplicity, Madi achieves unity.
Jamil Molaeb (b. 1948). Jamil Molaeb was born in Baissour and studied in the US. He has a Master’s from Pratt institute, New York and also earned a PhD in Art Education from the University of Ohio. Molaeb’s paintings and woodcuts largely explore his native Lebanon. His love of the sea is reflected in his vibrant blue coastal views, while his mountain and village landscapes celebrate nature in all its diversity. His recent works are influenced by Egyptian hieroglyphs and characterised by repetitive miniatures evocative of Lebanese traditions.
Since 1966, he has held solo and group exhibitions in Lebanon, Algeria and Brooklyn, New York. He has regularly exhibited with Galerie Janine Rubeiz at a number of art fairs in Geneva, Strasbourg, Abu Dhabi Art and Art Dubai. Molaeb’s work has been sold at many international auctions. He received the sculpture award from the Sursock Museum during the 1960s.
Joseph El Hourany (b. 1974). An architect, urban planner, university professor and musicologist, El Hourany is one of only a few sculptors in Lebanon who uses wood as his medium.
He holds a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as part of a cotutelle with the University of Quebec in Montreal, focused on the architectural parametric principles in the age of cybernetics, as well as additional degrees in Philosophy and Musicology.
Using morphing and mutation tactics, his wooden sculptures are focused primarily on the interplay between an initial idea or sketch and the material used for carving. El Hourany has acknowledged that it is difficult to categorise the various typologies of his sculptures, with all faces and sides of equal importance to him. No predetermined hierarchical relations exist, rather they comprise a form indebted to the fluctuating processes that shaped them. This procedural experimentation has resulted in what are hallmark unpredictable forms, with neither composition nor style in mind. The used sculpting practices can be characterised in folding, form‐finding, deconstructed geometries, free‐form and hybrids.
El Hourany has worked on several architectural and urban planning projects in Lebanon and abroad over the years, while also teaching and lecturing at various research institutes and universities. He is a published author and his work has been exhibited in Lebanon and abroad, including a ‘Retrospective 1995-2020’ in 2021 at Saleh Barakat Gallery and shows in the US, Canada and the UAE.
Joumana Medlej (b. 1979). Joumana Medlej is an artist, author and educator born in Beirut and best known for her work with early Arabic calligraphy, from which her visual language is derived. After an early career in graphic design and illustration, her deep connection to this tradition was awakened during the years she assisted Master Samir Sayegh in his Beirut studio. She also specialises in the art materials of that period; having abandoned store-bought paints for the old ways of natural colour-making, she prepares her own supplies using medieval techniques and forages for pigments and dyes wherever she finds herself. Medlej is now drawing on her practitioner’s experience to translate Abbasid-era Arabic manuals into English and bring the voices of past masters to a general audience.
Medlej is now based in East London and works out of her Hackney Wick studio. She teaches Kufi calligraphy and ink-making at the Arab British Centre, the Prince’s School of Traditional Arts and on Domestika. She has collaborated with the Aga Khan Museum and the Goethe Institute on educational projects, and has done work for the Royal Mint, Apple, Amnesty, BBC Arabic and the Royal Hashemite Court of Jordan. Medlej is the author of two books on art technology, titled ‘Inks & Paints of the Middle East’ and ‘Wild Inks & Paints’.
Juliana Séraphim (b. 1934). Born in Jaffa, Juliana Séraphim was among the first waves of displaced Palestinian refugees to move to Beirut, Lebanon in 1952. She was 14 when her family fled first to Sidon by boat in 1949, and then, following their move to Beirut, she worked in refugee relief while attending art classes. Here, Séraphim began producing her most notable works and developed her personal style. After studying at the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts, as well as privately with other local contemporary artists, she began to show her work in solo exhibitions and gained recognition within Beirut. She studied privately with the Lebanese painter Jean Khalifeh and her first exhibitions took place in his studio. Séraphim then went on to internationally represent Lebanon in three ‘biennales’ - Alexandria (1962), Paris (1963) and Sao Paolo (1965).
Whereas her Lebanese contemporaries tend to take on a figurative style in order to demonstrate the central issues of the Palestinian struggle, Séraphim’s visual language is often characterised as having complex layers of overlapping lines and improvisational dream-like imagery, stemming from childhood memories. In this way, Séraphim cultivates a shifting reality of infinite depth and creation. Her dream-like imagery also implies the unsteady nature of a long-held memory of a cherished place. In this way, she transcribes her political concerns about her home through the lens of personal and surreal imagery, while also encouraging the viewer to actively participate with the imagery presented.
Lana Khayat (b. 1983). Lana Khayat is currently based in Dubai and exhibits in New York, London and across the Middle East. She has a Bachelor’s in Design from the American University of Beirut and a Master’s in Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts, New York. Growing up in a family of unique artistic talent had a profound influence on Khayat. She traces her artistic lineage to her great-grandfather, Mohamad Suleiman Khayat, who contributed to the creation and restoration of traditional Syrian Ajami rooms. His work is showcased at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture and Design in Hawaii.
Khayat held her first solo exhibition in 2022 and her work features in several prestigious private collections. She is recognised for having developed an exceptional artistic direction; from her perspective, nature offers music to those who are truly willing to lend an ear. As an introvert, she has found herself more fluent with Mother Nature than mankind. Her art describes the free-flowing journey of her conversations with the wilderness, each tone and stroke overflowing with meaning beyond human script or language. Throughout her career, Khayat has also collaborated with leading international institutions, including the Guggenheim Museum.
Laure Ghorayeb (b. 1931 - 2023). Born in 1931 in Der El Qamar, Ghorayeb was not only a celebrated painter, but also a published author, cultural journalist and critic, including, most recently, on Annahar newspaper.
From 1966 onwards, Ghorayeb’s work was shown in a number of solo and collective exhibitions across the world, spanning the Arab countries, North Africa, Europe, Asia and Australia. Her artistic practice is entwined in her role as an artist, but also as a poet, journalist and witness of Lebanon’s recent history. She obsessively documented the people and events in her life, charting the experiences of living through political conflicts, alongside their moments of personal happiness. Her work depicts personal experiences of loss through animated but profoundly irreverent and bold characters.
From 2001 onwards, her work featured in several solo and group exhibitions at Galerie Janine Rubeiz, including shows held together with her son Mazen Kerbaj and the artist Huguette Caland. Her art was showcased at Art Dubai Modern (2014) and regularly at Abu Dhabi art fairs. Other exhibitions featuring her work have included: ‘Convergence - New Art from Lebanon’ (2010) at the Katzen Art Center of the American University in Washington DC and ‘Pinceaux pour Plumes’ (2006) at the Sursock Museum. In addition, she took part in ‘Home Beirut: Sounding the Neighbors’ (2017) at the MAXXI Museum in Rome and ‘Laure et Mazen: Correspondance(s)’ at the Sursock Museum in 2019. Ghorayeb’s work can be found in a number of prominent collections, including the British Museum, the Sursock Museum and ‘Fondation Saradar’.
Leila Jabre Jureidini (b. 1963). Based in Beirut, Leila Jabre Jureidini studied in Paris, attending the ‘Atelier Jacques D’Anton et Met de Penninghen’, aged 18. She then went to the ‘Ecole Supérieure des Arts Graphiques’, before spending two years at Parsons School of Design, Paris campus and New York, where she studied for a degree in Graphic Design.
Today, she spends most of her time in her studio, where she paints, sculpts and brings to life the things that move her. Jureidini’s sculptures of women, captured in an often-transient position reminiscent of Cartier-Bresson’s ‘decisive moment’, glorify the feminine body in all its splendour. Her bronze cubic sculptures are abstract representations of moods and emotions, and the multi-media pieces a comic – or sad – showcase of our legacy to our children. The abundance of her work throughout the years culminated in a number of highbrow shows at key spaces, including: London's Contemporary Parallax Art Fair (2011); Sursock Museum’s 31st ‘Salon d'Automne’ (2012), where she received special mention from the Jury; Beirut Art Fair (2013) and (2015); ‘Bitassarof’, the Lebanese National Library (2016); and the travelling collective exhibition of Imago Mundi Benetton Collection (2017). Jureidini's work is permanently on show at Galerie Janine Rubeiz, having featured there in solo and collective exhibitions, such as: ‘The Undoing’ (2014); ‘Collective’ (2015); ‘Oeuvres Récentes’ (2017); ‘Freedom Fighters’ (2019); and ‘Beirut 2020’.
Marie Hadad (1889 - 1973). Born in Beirut, to a prominent family of bankers, Marie Hadad completed her education in 1908 at the exclusive French school ‘L’Ecole des Dames de Nazareth’, where she studied the work of the French Masters in both literature and arts. She married in 1916 and the couple had three daughters.
In the early 1920s, Hadad began painting purely for pleasure having undertaken some art training in 1924/25 with the French artist Kober, who had an art school in Beirut. In 1930, she began exhibiting her art in Beirut and quickly gained recognition for her enduring and passionate portraits of bedouins and Lebanese highlanders. In fact, her chosen subject earned her the nickname of ‘The Bedouin’s Artist’.
In 1933, her friend ‘Le Comte De Martel’, French Ambassador to Lebanon, invited Hadad to show her work in Paris, with the result that she became the first and only Lebanese artist to be admitted at ‘Le Salon d’Automne Du Grand Palais’ in Paris from 1933 until 1937. Her first solo exhibition was held at Georges Bernheim Gallery in 1933, where she continued to exhibit every year until 1940. She also exhibited in London and New York, and took part in the New York World’s Fair of 1939 and the Cleveland International Exhibition of 1941.
Hadad was a leader and pioneer in the Lebanese art circle, heading the ‘Association des Artistes du Liban’. Her salon was famous as a meeting place for Beirut’s intellectuals and artists. She was also a proficient writer.
Mazen Rifai (b. 1957). A Beirut-based artist and architect, Mazen Rifai is known for his ability to capture the luminosity of his hometown of Baalback, which has remained his source of inspiration over the years, in small-scale paintings, through thick brushstrokes. Rifai has a Degree in Fine Arts from Macerata, Italy, and another in Interior Design from the Lebanese University (LU). He taught fine arts and was head of department at the LU before leaving to focus on architecture and painting, taking on the role of art director at Engineers Consulting and Contracting. He remains a consultant in construction, rehabilitation and renovation for the Council for Development and Reconstruction.
Rifai has participated in numerous editions of Sursock Museum’s ‘Salon d’Automne’, while also holding several solo exhibitions locally and internationally, including shows in Beirut at ‘Epreuve d’Artiste’, Galerie Rochane, Galerie Aida Cherfan, Gallery 6 and Agial Gallery. He is a member of the Baalbeck International Festival Committee and has also published two books.
Nadia Saikali (b. 1936). Born in Beirut, Nadia Saikali is a contemporary artist who graduated from the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts, having been encouraged to draw as a child by her father, a draughtsman. She was also a talented ballet dancer and musician. Saikali continued her studies at ‘L’Académie de la Grande Chaumière’ and ‘L’Ecole des Arts Decoratifs’ in Paris. Her training included time spent in the studios of Henri Goetz, Michel Durand and Donnot Seydoux.
Saikali moved to Glasgow briefly before returning to Beirut in the mid-1950s. She participated in the annual ‘Salon du Printemps’ at the UNESCO Palace, the ‘Salon d’Automne’ at the Sursock Museum in the 1960s and the 1967 ‘São Paulo Biennale’. When the civil war broke out, she moved to France.
Described by fellow artist the late Helen Khal as a ‘bohemian artist at work’, Saikali painted on canvas and other media, either on the floor or against a wall, creating vibrant, three-dimensional volumes of colour, light and movement, and even producing kinetic constructions entirely by herself. Sources of inspiration include the four elements, perhaps due to an early fascination with geology and archaeology, and the simple joy of being alive. Her work features in several collections, including those of the Sursock Museum, Beirut; the Chase Manhattan Bank, New York; the National Fund of Contemporary Art, Paris; and the Royal Institute Galleries, London.
Oussama Baalbaki (b. 1978). Born in Beirut, Oussama Baalbaki received his Bachelor’s in Fine Arts from the Institute of Fine Arts, Lebanese University, in 2002. He has participated in numerous group exhibitions across a wide array of institutions in Lebanon, including the Sursock Museum, and abroad in the cities of Abu Dhabi, Dubai, London, Miami, Munich, New York and Washington. His solo exhibitions include: ‘Paintings in Black’ (2004) at Dar El Nadwa; ‘Scenes of Isolation’ (2007) at Safana Gallery; ‘Less Smoke, and more…’ (2009); ‘Rituals of Isolation’ (2011); ‘Spectres of the Real’ (2015); ‘Pleadings of the Light’ (2017) at Agial Gallery; ‘Shadows of Gloominess’ (2014) at Galerie Tanit, hosted in collaboration with Agial Gallery; and ‘Against the Grain’ (2018) at Saleh Barakat Gallery. In 2009, he won the silver medal for painting at the ‘Jeux de la Francophonie’. Baalbaki lives and works in Beirut.
Paul Guiragossian (1926 - 1993). Born in Jerusalem to survivors of the Armenian Genocide, Paul Guiragossian displayed an inventive approach to painting that brought him huge acclaim well beyond the shores of Lebanon, where he later settled with his family. Guiragossian attended the Yarkon Studio of Art, Jaffa, moving to Beirut in the lead up to the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Here, he began creating portraits of local residents. In 1957, he won a prize to study at the ‘Accademia di Belle Arti’ in Florence, followed by a further scholarship to attend ‘Les Ateliers des Maîtres de l’Ecole de Paris’ in 1962. Guiragossian won first prize at the ‘biennales’ of Paris (1958) and Florence (1961). His vast oeuvre offers an intuitive insight into the human figure through varying degrees of abstraction. Steeped in thick waves of colour created with thick brushstrokes, the often faceless figures with elongated bodies featured in Guiragossian’s work reflect themes of motherhood, spirituality, exile and labour, echoing his personal experiences and observations.
Guiragossian’s work has been exhibited extensively and features in many highly esteemed public and private collections. Major exhibitions include ‘The Human Condition’ (2014), a retrospective organised by the Paul Guiragossian Foundation at the Beirut Exhibition Centre, marking the 20th anniversary of the artist’s passing; and Paul Guiragossian: ‘Testimonies of Existence’ (2018), Barjeel Art Foundation, in collaboration with the Paul Guiragossian Foundation, Sharjah, UAE.
Ribal Moaleb (b. 1992). Born in Baissour, Ribal Molaeb moved to Salzburg, Austria at the age of 17, to study at the Mozarteum University, Salzburg. He later moved to Vienna to study at the University for Music and Performing Arts, where he received his Master’s in Arts with distinction. Molaeb was assigned as the artistic director of ‘SUMITO’ Art and Music Association in Switzerland. He is the president of the Molaeb Art Museum and the founder of Molaeb Festival for Chamber Music and Fine Arts. His oil paintings have been exhibited in Amsterdam, Zürich, Vienna and Beirut. Represented by Galerie Janine Rubeiz, Beirut and Galerie Agénor, Zürich, he currently lives and works in Zürich, Switzerland.
In his early years, he was personally trained by his father Jamil Molaeb. He was also inspired by Lebanese 20th-century abstract expressionists, like Saliba Douaihy, Aref el Rayess and Shafic Abboud. After moving to Switzerland, Molaeb became influenced by the works of Paul Klee, who was, himself, an accomplished violinist. Ribal Molaeb’s musical education in Vienna had a significant impact on his paintings; a musical orientation exists in the compositional, harmonic and melodic aspects of many of his works. His paintings have an energy about them, generated by his interrogation of colour power and harmony. At the same time, the works are marked by aspects of delicate distribution of colours and shapes. Molaeb’s understanding of harmony in classical music has given him a deep understanding of abstract paintings and compositions. He paints to create a personally satisfying world, cleanly designed and delicately harmonised.
Samia Osseiran Jumblat (b. 1944). Samia Osseiran was born in Saida and graduated with a BA in Fine Arts in 1965 from the Beirut University College, Lebanon. She received her MA in Fine Art in Florence, Italy, two years later, from the Institute of Pius II. Osseiran Jumblatt worked as a professor of fine arts at the Beirut University College from 1970 for two years, before travelling to Tokyo as a graphic art student – an experience, alongside milestones in her life, that would have a significant impact on her work. In 1977, she founded the Society Artaizhana in south Lebanon. Key themes in her work, which has featured in a number of exhibitions, include flora, verdure and solar elements - a stark contrast to her earlier black and white pieces. Jumblatt continues to live in Saida.
Willy Aractingi (1930 - 2003). Born in New York, Willy Aractingi took up painting aged just 12 years, honing his skills in Egypt, where he was raised by extended family. Towards the end of the 1940s, he moved to Beirut, where he met his wife. Aware of his family responsibilities, he put his art to one side and focused on his day job.
Some years before the civil war in Lebanon, Aractingi launched a modern art gallery in partnership with Alexandre Lolas. He felt able to begin painting full-time by the mid -1980s, and towards the end of the decade, started working on his biggest and best-known oeuvre, the illustrations of the Fables of the French poet Jean de La Fontaine, which took seven years to complete. He continued painting until his death in 2003.
Aractingi’s work has been featured in over 100 exhibitions in Lebanon, France, the UK and the US. A retrospective show at the Sursock Museum in 2017, spanning 1973 - 2003 and titled ‘Les Mondes de Willy Aractingi’ (The Worlds of Willy Aractingi), reaffirmed his status as one of Lebanon’s most talented modernists.
Zad Moultaka (b. 1967). Zad Moultaka lives and works between Beirut and Paris. As a composer and visual artist, Moultaka has been exploring these two worlds for many years, seeking to harmonize musical and visual research. At the invitation of major festivals, he has created: ‘Zàrani’ (2002); ‘Nepsis’ (2005, based on a poem by Etel Adnan); ‘La Scala del Cielo’ (2006); ‘L’Autre Rive’ (2009); ‘La Passion selon Marie’ (2012); ‘Il Regno dell’Acqua’ (2013); ‘Hummus’ (2014); and ‘La Passion d’Adonis’ (2015-2016, based on texts by the exiled Syrian poet Adonis). As a visual artist, Moultaka has regularly exhibited his work in Lebanon, Venice and Paris, including at the ‘Institut du Monde Arabe’ and in the framework of ‘Nuit Blanche’. In 2017, Moultaka created ‘ŠamaŠ’, a monumental visual and sound installation for the Lebanese Pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennial. The installation was then exhibited at the Sursock Museum, Beirut, in 2018, before travelling to Finland, Norway, the UK and Australia. In September 2018, Moultaka also presented an in-situ work within the International Trade Fair in Tripoli, designed by Oscar Niemeyer. He is represented in Beirut by Galerie Janine Rubeiz.
Zena Assi (b. 1974). A prize-winning artist, Zena Assi lives and works between Beirut and London, having graduated with honours from the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts. Previously, she worked in advertising and taught at various universities.
Assi draws inspiration from the relations and conflicts between individuals and their spatial environment, society and its surroundings. Her work takes shape in sculpture, painting and experimental animation, among other media. Topical issues that are central to her vision include migration and the relation between memories and people on the move.
Many of her pieces are regularly shown in renowned international auction houses and feature in both public and private collections, including the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts, Barjeel Art Foundation in Sharjah and Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris.
Assi is the recipient of several prizes, including: the Sunny Dupree Family Award for a Woman Artist (2020 Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy, London); the Rosemary & Co Award (2018 SWA show, London); and the Special Jury Prize (XXIX Salon d’Automne, Sursock Museum, Beirut).
Her work has featured in both solo and collective shows across Europe, the Middle East and the US, including at: Alwane Gallery, Beirut; Subtitled Appeal, Royal College of Art, London; Artsawa Gallery, Dubai; Zoom Art Fair, Miami; Cairo Biennale; Katzen Arts Center of American University, Washington DC; Rebirth Beirut Exhibition Center, Beirut; Art13 & Art14, London Fair; Art Paris; Imperial War Museum, London; Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris; Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, London; and the 57th Venice Art Biennale.
