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.
Biography Sahar Al Amir, born in Alexandria in 1970, is an Egyptian artist who has studied and received training in both Egypt and Italy across various mediums. She produces multilayered abstract work,…
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,…
Born in Tunisia in 1937, Nja Mahdaoui graduated from the Academia Santa Andrea in Rome and the École du Louvre in Paris in 1967. As a visual artist he has mainly focused on calligraphy. Initially inspired by abstract painting, his work is remarkably innovative in the artistic field of the “written word”.
Born in Bizerte, Tunisia in 1965, Imed Jemaiel shifted his attention to the arts after two years of medical school. In 1990, he earned a degree in Fine Arts, specialising in printmaking. In 1992, he started teaching at the Higher Institute of Fine Arts in Tunisia.
Ayman Baalbaki was born in Adeisseh in 1975, the same year the Lebanese civil war began. A lot of his work tackles this conflict and its aftermath. It looks at destruction, displacement, loss, identity, and collective memory. Baalbaki is best-known for his large-scale paintings, executed primarily in thick acrylic paint, distinct for their sense of organised chaos.
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.
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Born in Saida in 1979, Tagreed Darghouth studied painting and sculpture at the Lebanese Academy of Fine Art.
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Born in Homs in 1977, Mouteea Murad studied Fine Arts at the University of Damascus. His works are inspired by traditional Islamic art in which spirituality and formalism are unified in geometric form.
Walaa Dakak was born in 1978 in Damascus, Syria. He holds a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Damascus and later studied Contemporary Art and New Media at the Université Paris.
Hussain Sharif is one of the United Arab Emirates’ foremost
conceptual artists, who has contributed widely to the development
of art in his native country, founding the Emirates Fine Art Society
in Sharjah along with his brother, Hassan Sharif, and Mohammed
Kazem, Mohammed Ahmed Ibrahim and Abdullah Al Saadi.
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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.
Jad El Khoury is best known for his fictitious characters, referred to as Potato Nose, which includes a series of doodled cartoon characters drawn in black outline with exaggerated yet simple features.
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Lebanese artist Sarah Abou Mrad was born in 1988. She is a Fine Arts
graduate of Painting from the Lebanese University. In 2010 she established the Art department at “Sainte-Anne des Sœurs de Besançon” school in Beirut where she taught arts for 10 years.
Born in Beirut in 1972 to famous Armenian, Lebanese modernist Paul Guiragossian, Manuella Guiragossian grew up surrounded by people with a passion for art and culture.
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Biography Azadeh Ghotbi was born in Iran and is currently based in London. She is a painter and photographer who studied International Relations at Brown University in the United States. Her work…
Since his first solo exhibition, Nabil Saouabi has participated in numerous exhibitions in Tunisia and abroad, including in biennials such as Dak’art, Beijing, and the 5th International Biennial of Engraving of Île de France.
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Walid Agha was born in Damascus in 1953 and studied Visual Communications at the University of Damascus before establishing his own silk-screening workshop.
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Biography Leily Derakhshani, born in Iran in 1961, graduated from the School of Dramatic Arts with a focus on Sculpting and then majored in Sculpting at the College of Fine Arts in…
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Born in Tehran, Iran in 1982, Mohsen Ahmadvand received his BA
in Painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts at Tehran University. He
prefers drawing over painting for its efficiency and directness.
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.
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.
Biography Hind Nasser, born in Amman in 1940, graduated with a BA in History and Politics from Beirut College for Women (now the Lebanese American University) in 1961. She began studying painting…
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.
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.
Biography Joanna Barakat was born in Jerusalem, raised in Los Angeles, and later moved to London for her studies. She earned a BA in Art and Design from Central Saint Martins, University…
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.
Biography Pouya Parsamagham, born in 1981 in Tehran, Iran, graduated from the University of Applied Science and Technology with a degree in filmmaking and graphic design. He began his career as a…
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.
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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.
Biography Born in 1969 in Lebanon, Anachar Basbous lives with his family in Rachana, a village renowned for its open-air sculptures overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. Raised in a family of artists—his father,…
Born in Beirut in 1973, Raffi Yedalian studied Etching at the Lebanese Academy of Fine Art and Fine Arts at the Academy of Fine Art Toros Roslin. Yadalian’s etchings, paintings and wood and bronze sculptures are characterized by stylized human faces whose angular features convey a sense of eternal longing.
Born in Cairo from a Palestinian Jordanian family. Fares Rizk studied fine art at Parson’s school of design and graduated with an M.F.A.
Dena Matar lives and works in Gaza, where she received a degree in Fine Art and Education from Al Aqsa University. Her dynamic use of color and line offers an optimistic and hopeful view of life in Gaza, lending a psychological dimension to her paintings, rather than representing a region crippled by Israeli incursions and blockades. Despite her young age and the profound challenges of living under siege, she has made a vital contribution to artistic production in Gaza through her paintings and by acting as a mentor for artists. She is a member of the ELTIQA artist collective in Gaza City and has participated in several local exhibitions and workshops in Gaza in cooperation with A.M. Qattan Foundation, the French Cultural Centre, and other institutions. Matar’s unique style, which critics have likened to the colorful and unique compositions of Juan Miro and Pablo Picasso, has gained her international recognition. Her work has been exhibited in Switzerland, Geneva, France, and the Mosaic Rooms in London as part of their ‘Occupied Space’ exhibition in 2008. In 2012, she was selected to participate in the artistic residence in Paris, Cité Internationale des Arts.
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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.
Born in Nabeul, Tunisia in 1951, Khaled Ben Slimane graduated from the Escola Massana of Barcelona in 1977 and then from the Technological Institute of Art in Tunisia in 1982. His multidisciplinary practice includes paintings on paper, canvas and wood. He is mostly known for his ceramic and bronze sculptures.
Sami Mohammad is a Kuwaiti artist and sculptor considered one of the pioneers of cultural movements in Kuwait and throughout the region.
Nadia Jelassi, born in Tunisia in 1958. Jelassi presented her first works in 1990 at the Biennial of Young Creators from Europe and the Mediterranean at the Museum of Vielle Charité in Marseille, and later in 1992 at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Gibellina, Italy and the Metropolitan Museum in Tokyo.