Cultural Narratives, commissioned by Rima Nasser, features works from established and emerging artists in the Middle
East, North Africa, and the Gulf. The exhibition highlights regional artistic achievements and fosters appreciation and
understanding of its cultures. Showcased in traveling exhibitions, it brings the region’s vibrant art scene to global audiences.

Hanibal Srouji

Born in Lebanon in 1957, Hanibal Srouji studied in Lebanon and Canada and has been living between Beirut and Paris since 1989. His muted canvases which appear abstract at first glance, are in fact inspired by the artist’s own memories. 

Serwan Baran

Born in Baghdad in 1968, Serwan Baran is a graduate of Fine Arts from Babel University, a member of AIAP, the Iraqi Fine Art Association, and the National Art Association.

Nabil Anani

Nabil Anani is one of Palestine’s most influential artists working today. Born in Latroun in 1943, Anani studied Fine Art at Alexandria University, Egypt and returned to his native Palestine, where he began a successful career as an artist and educator.

Ghassan Nana

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.

cultural narratives Mohammed Joha_Artwork_Cultural Narratives

Mohammed Joha

Mohammed Joha was born in 1978 in Gaza. His paintings, though playful in style and bold in colour, offer a critique of Arab and Western media bias and their (mis)representation of Arab culture.

Bassem Dahdouh

Born in Damascus in 1964, Bassem Dahdouh studied art at the University of Damascus and received his PhD from Egypt’s Helwan University.

Tahar Ben Jelloun

Tahar Ben Jelloun is a Moroccan author, poet and painter born in 1944 in Fez. Although he started drawing before writing, he only began painting in the past ten years. After attending a bilingual French-Moroccan primary school, he studied at the French lycée in Tangier until he was 18.

Bahram Hajou

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.

Sinan Hussein

Born in 1977 in Iraq, Sinan Hussein graduated from the University of Fine Arts in Baghdad. He is a member of the Iraqi Fine Arts Artist Society and of the Union of Iraqi Artists. Sinan Hussein’s whimsical characters seem weightless in an environment reminiscent of Limbo.

Bashar Alhroub

Bashar Alhroub is a Jerusalem-born artist known for his eclectic artistic practice, which includes collage on paper; sculpture; autobiographical photography; figurative paintings depicting haunting figures; detailed line drawings of Jerusalem and its surroundings.

Athier Mousawi

Born in 1982, Athier Mousawi lives and works between Paris, London, and Istanbul, and holds a graduate degree in Communication Design with Illustration from Central Saint Martins, UK. In recent years Athier Mousawi’s work has centred on posing unanswerable questions against undefined answers, forming a visual narrative between the two. Since 2007, the subject of much of his work has been Iraq and his diasporic relationship to his foreign homeland, as well as the concept of nostalgic referencing in how we idolise and remember our past, present, and future. Separate to his artistic practice, Athier has worked extensively as an educator in the UK and abroad. For three consecutive years, beginning in 2007, Athier worked as a British Museum Arab Artist in Residence, working in schools throughout the UK. In 2011, he was selected to serve as the Chasing Mirrors Artist in Residence at the National Portrait Gallery, leading workshops in community centres across London. Athier has also worked in a number of refugee camps as a workshop leader in Lebanon, Turkey, and Jordan, and in 2014 was invited by the Palestinian Museum as a Visiting Artist to conduct workshops with children in the West Bank. In 2015, he was selected to work at the artist-run interdisciplinary space Beirut Art Residency. Athier has participated in many solo and group exhibitions including in Beirut, Dubai, Geneva, London, Jeddah and Tashkent.

cultural narratives ali neema artwork

Ali Neema

Artwork

Nadim Karam

Nadim Karam is a multidisciplinary artist, whose work incorporates painting, drawing, and sculpture through a distinct artistic style that draws from Oriental and Japanese theories of space.

Marwan Chamaa

Born in Lebanon in 1964, Marwan Chamaa is a painter, designer, and storyteller who studied Art at the American University of Beirut, the Lebanese American University, and the Corcoran School of Art in Washington D.C.

cultural narratives nadya zarraghoui artwork

Nadya Zarrougui

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…

cultural narratives mostafa Sarabi Artwork

Mostafa Sarabi

Biography Mostafa Sarabi was born in 1983 in Kermanshah, Iran. He received an MA in Painting from Shahed University, Iran. Sarabi employs a simple and direct visual language to create mysterious landscapes,…

cultural narratives atousa jannesari artwork

Atousa Jannesari

Biography Atousa Jannesari, born in Tehran, Iran, in 1981, holds a B.A. in Painting from Sooreh University, which she completed in 2007. She won the Karaj Annual Drawing Award in 2005. Atousa…

Klay Kassem

Born in Alexandria in 1977, Klay Mohamed Abdel Aziz Kassem graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Alexandria in 2000 and holds an MA (2008) and a Ph.D. (2013) in Art Studies.

cultural narratives fatameh bahman artwork

Fatameh Bahman

Biography Fatemeh Bahman, born in Tehran, Iran, in 1981, is an accomplished painter and art writer. She has a background in mathematics and literature graphics from the Ministry of Culture and Islamic…

Kourosh Salehi

Born in Khuzestan, Iran and raised in London, Kourosh Salehi
studied traditional Persian painting as a child and later attended
art school in the UK. He is based in Abu Dhabi.

Nariman Farrokhi

Nariman Farrokhi was born in Tehran, Iran in 1985. He has created a unique approach to language, using words for visual impact,
favouring simplicity and directness.

Ismail Al Rifai

Ismail Al Rifai was born in Mayadin in 1967 and studied Fine Art at the University of Damascus. Al Rifai has served as a member of the Syrian Fine Arts Syndicate as well as the UAE Fine Arts Society and currently works as a researcher in the Department of Culture and Information in Sharjah.

Jamil Molaeb

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.

Raya Farhat

Award-winning, Beirut-based art director and photographer Raya Farhat has been a contributor to Lebanon’s A Mag (Aïshti) and L’Officiel-Levant for over eight years. She’s collaborated with international photographers and stylists such as David Bellemère, Marco Pietracupa, Jürgen Teller and Oliver Hadlee Pearch, among many others.

Raed Issa

Raed Issa was born in Al Bureij refugee camp in Gaza in 1975.   Portraying scenes of tragedy and bereavement that come with living under siege, Essa’s work is highly emotive.  His portraits of young children, martyrs, and wounded bodies capture the vulnerability and tragedy of living in precarity.

Hady Sy

Artwork

cultural narratives elias ayoub artwork

Elias Ayoub

Biography Elias Ayoub, born in 1986, is a contemporary artist based in Beirut. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts at Damascus University and a Master…

cultural narratives omar al shahabi artwork

Omar Al Shahabi

Biography Omar Al Shahabi was born in Iraq in 1983. He earned a BFA from the University of Baghdad in 2007 and now lives and works in Qatar. He has held solo…

Katya Traboulsi

Born in 1960, Katya Traboulsi is a Beirut-based multimedia artist whose practice is characterized by the emotional intensity with which she confronts the effects of the Lebanese civil war.

Ayman Essa

Ayman Essa lives and works in Gaza. He obtained his BA in Fine Arts, specializing in Photography, from Al-Najah University in Nablus in 1999 and holds a Master’s from Helwan University in Egypt. His distinct color palette comprised of mainly blue, red and pinkish hues, defines his bold large-scale figurative paintings series.  Focusing solely on the female form, Essa’s works are recognizable through their exaggerated, curvaceous forms and at times coquettish gestures. He has participated in several group exhibitions including The Path at Dar Al-Karameh Hall in 1999 and the Red Crescent Society in Gaza in 2001. His work has also been exhibited internationally, including the Biennial for Young Artists in Rome in 1999 and the We Will Become exhibition (2004-5) which involved ten artists traveling from Gaza to several cities in France.

cultural narratives farrokh nooroney artwork

Farrokh Nooroney

Biography Farokh Nooroney is an Iranian-Canadian artist specialising in painting and sculpture. He has showcased his work in numerous solo and group exhibitions across cities such as Las Vegas, Seattle, Paris, Dubai,…

Guirguis Lotfy

Guirguis Lotfy is best known for his elaborative ancient painting techniques that were deployed between the 1st and 4th Centuries, namely, the use of egg tempera.

Mirmohammad Fattahi

Born in Karaj, Iran in 1987, Mirmohammad Fattahi obtained a
diploma in painting from the School of Fine Arts in Iran, followed by
a BA in painting from Soore Art University of Tehran.

cultural narratives farbod elkaee artwork

Farbod Elkaee

Biography Farbod Elkaee, born in 1992 in Tehran, graduated in painting from Soore Art University in 2015. Living and working in Tehran, he has been active in painting and sculpture since 2006.…

Khalid Takreti

Khalid Takriti is a renowned Syrian artist, who was born in Beirut in 1964.  He graduated from the Architecture and Painting Academy in Damascus after which he worked as an architect in Damascus’ General Directorate of Antiquity and Museums.

Hala Choucair

Born in Lebanon in 1957, Hala Choucair is a painter who is best known for her intricate paintings that focus on the minute detail of the objects she draws.