Tayseer Barakat is one of Palestine’s preeminent artists whose practice over the past years has drawn inspiration from the ancient past, oral traditions, and cultural narratives that are intimately tied to life in Palestine.
Palestine
Cultural Narratives, commissioned by Rima Nasser, features works from established and emerging artists in the Middle
Lebanon
Artwork
Syria
Born in Hama in 1952, Edward Shahda studied at the Suhail Ahdab Center in Hama and the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Damascus, before undertaking a residency at the Anatoli Klankov Atelier in Russia
Lebanon
Artwork
United Arab Emirates
Born in the United Arab Emirates, Salama Al Mazrouie graduated from the School of Fine Arts, UAE University, and is a member of the Emirates Fine Art Society.
Lebanon
Born in Lebanon in 1954, Ghassan Zard lives and works in Beirut. Influenced by lyrical abstraction, Zard began his artistic career as a painter but later focused predominantly on sculptural works rendered in polished wood, aluminium and raw steel.
Iran
Biography Bita Fayyazi, born in 1962 in Tehran, is an artist known for her performative and social practice. More than a sculptor, installation artist, or ceramicist, she engages in a collaborative approach…
Lebanon
Born in Beirut in 1965, Rim El Jundi studied religious art at the University of the Holy Spirit in Kaslik and fine art at the Lebanese American University, where she was awarded The Sheikh Zayed Graduation Award from the Lebanese American University in 1997.
Iraq
Born in 1953 in Baghdad, Nawal Alsadon graduated in 1980 in Graphic Design from the Academy of Fine Arts in Bucharest, Romania. She began participating in group exhibitions in 1975, beginning with The Association of Iraqi Artists gallery in Baghdad, and since then has had her art shown in numerous exhibitions across the world, including in Romania, Yemen, Syria, Germany, Norway, Denmark, Scotland, Sweden, the Czech Republic and Turkey.
Tunisia
Biography Nadya Zarrougui, born on January 27, 1988, in Tunis, is a visual artist. She has a master’s degree in Fine Arts with a focus on painting and research in Aesthetics and…
Syria
Born in Homs in 1953, Ghassan Nana studied at the Fine Arts Center in Homs and the University of Damascus. His luminous, delicate oil paintings are executed in a classical impressionist style, capturing soothing pastoral scenes that possess a haunting and ethereal quality.
Syria
Born in Damascus, Syria in 1976, Elias Izoli is a self-taught painter whose creative talents were revealed at a young age.
Iran
Artwork
Syria
Bahram Hajo was born in Syria in 1952. He studied at the Fine Arts
Academy in Dusseldorf Germany and in 1984 graduated from the
Kunstakademie Münster.
Syria
Born in Daraa, southwest Syria, in 1989, Mohammad Labash studied painting and drawing at Damascus University.
Egypt
Biography Rifky El Razzaz is an Egyptian artist born in 1958, currently based in Cairo. His work draws inspiration from Cairo’s landscape and ancient history, creating large paintings that reference Ancient Egyptian…
Iran
Biography Afshan Daneshvar, born in 1972, is a Dubai-based Iranian visual artist. Mentored in Persian calligraphy by her father, she has incorporated it into her practice since 2004. Her meditative work focuses…
Iraq
Born in Baghdad, Iraq in 1966, Mahmoud Obaidi is an IraqiCanadian globally exhibited Avant-garde artist who deals with any medium that would best represent his concept: painting, sculpture, photography, installation.
Syria
Artwork
Lebanon
Artwork
Iran
Biography Rozita Sharafjahan, born in 1962 in Tehran, Iran, began her art education at the age of 15. She continued her studies and graduated with an MA degree from Tehran University in…
Iran
Biography The Ghasemi Brothers – Morteza, Sina, and Mojtaba Ghasemi Sheelsar – have been collaborating since 2015. While they each pursue their own painting projects individually, they also come together to work…
Jordan
Born in Amman, Jordan in 1938 to a Lebanese father and a Turkish
mother, Mohanna Durra is a Jordanian painter widely regarded as a
pioneer of the Jordanian Arts Movement and for being the first to
introduce Cubism and abstract art into the Jordanian visual arts
community.
Lebanon
Artwork
Syria
Born in Damascus in 1964, Bassem Dahdouh studied art at the University of Damascus and received his PhD from Egypt’s Helwan University.
Lebanon
Artwork
Tunisia
Born in 1983 in Sidi Bouzid, Slimen Elkamel is a young visual artist and an extensively published art critic for newspapers, publications, and art catalogues.
Iran
Artwork
Egypt
Yasser Abd Elhay Mourad Rostom, more commonly known artistically as Rostom, is a Cairo-based sculptor, painter, furniture designer, and art director. Following his education at the Cairo Faculty of Art, he worked as an art director’s assistant in Egyptian television and in TV commercials.
Egypt
One of Egypt’s foremost contemporary artists, Hossam Dirar works across painting, video, sound, and installation art. Born in Cairo in 1978, Dirar graduated from the faculty of Applied Arts, at Helwan University, and later went on to participate in art, photography, and graphic workshops.
Lebanon
Artwork
United Arab Emirates
Born in Al-Ain city, United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 1987, Saoud Al Dhaheri [RF1] joined the Higher Colleges of Technology Photography Club, and later the Emirates Photography Society, to pursue his artistic passion.
Iran
Biography Elmira Mirmiran is a visual artist based in Tehran, holding a Bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design and a Master’s degree in Painting from the University of Science and Culture in Tehran.…
Jordan
Artwork
Lebanon
Artwork
Iran
Artwork
Iran
Artwork
Syria
Ahmad Kleige was born in Aleppo, Syria in 1964. He studied at the Fathi Mohamed Fine Arts Center in Aleppo.
United Arab Emirates
Ayesha Hadhir is an emerging Emirati visual artist working predominantly in textile, creating textured pieces – either embroidered materials mounted on screens or stand-alone larger-scale sculptural pieces –centralizing the materials she uses, namely brightly colored threads that are often left hanging and unstitched.
Syria
Born in Damascus in 1968, Boutros Al-Maari studied printmaking in Syria and received a Doctorate in Social Anthropology from EHESS in Paris, France. Both cultural contexts are reflected in his distinctive paintings.
Egypt
Born in Beheira, Egypt in 1984, Hady Boraey lives and works in Alexandria, Egypt. He received a BFA in 2005 and an MFA in 2011 as well as a Ph.D.
Palestine
Suleiman Mansour is one of Palestine’s leading contemporary artists. He is best known for his 1974 painting Camel of Hardship, which depicts the concept of summud, or steadfastness.
Lebanon
Jamil Molaeb was born in Baysour, a town in the Chouf region of Lebanon where he continues to live and work. In addition to painting, Molaeb is a sculptor and makes mosaics – a practice reflected in his canvas works.
Jordan
Artwork
Syria
Born in Hasaka in 1947, Barsoum Barsouma studied painting at the University of Damascus before working as a patterning expert at the Syrian Directorate General of Antiquities and Museums.
Lebanon
Born in Deir al-Qamar in 1931, Laure Ghorayeb has been exhibiting her intricate ink drawings since the 1960s, documenting the people and events in her life, and charting their experiences of living through political conflict.
Tunisia
Born in 1982 in Tunis, multi-disciplinary artist Thameur Mejri trained as a painter at the Institute of Fine Arts in Tunis and now lives and works in Nabeul, Tunisia. He currently teaches at the Higher Institute of the Arts & Crafts in Kairouan while completing a Ph.D. in Sciences and Technology of Arts and continuing to exhibit in Tunisia and internationally.
Iraq
Mahmood Shubbar was born in Babel in 1965. He received a bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from Baghdad University in 1986 and later went on to receive his Ph.D. in Fine Arts.
Egypt
Walid Ebeid was born in 1970 in Cairo. He began to establish his form of realistic expressionism from the time he was six years old. The main theme of his paintings gives one the impression that there is always a mystic message behind the realistic visuals recreated with his own vision.
Iran
Biography Sadra Baniasadi, born in 1991 in Tehran, Iran, is a painter. He studied painting at Tehran Art University from 2010 to 2015 and began exhibiting his work in galleries during his…