Born in 1955 in Hollywood, California to Iraqi parents, Maysaloun Faraj grew up between the USA (1955-68) in Baghdad, where she obtained a BSc in Architecture from Baghdad University 1973-78) and London, where she furthered her art education and where she has been living and working since 1982.
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. Blending elements of Western and Oriental art, his work captures familiar Damascus haunts like the iconic Al-Nawfara Café; elsewhere, he places historic Western leaders in settings familiar to Arabic culture, as seen in his painting Louis XIV Playing Mahbousheh (2013). In al-Maari’s nostalgic, idyllic world, the best of Syria and France are peacefully united. His paintings are rife with references from art history, with titles such as A Tribute to Cezanne (2009) or Van Gogh and Gauguin (2012), all rendered in his unique style, with the figures painted in monochromatic tones and elongated, caricatured faces, set against either starkly dark or stylistically colorful backgrounds, depending on what the scene dictates.
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.
Born in Hama, Syria in 1961, Safwan Dahoul was initially trained by leading modernists at the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Damascus before travelling to Belgium, where he earned a doctorate from the Higher Institute of Plastic Arts in Mons.
Khaled Takreti 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. In 1992, he moved
to New York to develop his artistic practice and later settled in Paris.
Born in Saida in 1979, Tagreed Darghouth studied painting and sculpture at the Lebanese Academy of Fine Art. She continued her studies at the Ecole Nationale Supériere des Arts Décoratifs in Paris and participated in the Summer Academy at Darat Al Funun in Amman, which was led by Syrian artist Marwan Kassab-Bachi. Her figurative acrylic paintings explore pressing socio-political issues – namely, the effects of cosmetic surgery on notions of beauty and the (mis)treatment of domestic workers in Lebanon. Her intimate and confessional portrait series, Mirror Mirror, depicts swollen and disfigured faces of men and women recovering from cosmetic surgery. Collectively these works carry an intensity that forces the viewer to reflect on their complicity in perpetuating normative claims on success and attraction. Her provocatively titled acrylic paintings that deal with the encroaching threat of nuclear weapons, such as Nowhere To Hide (2015), further challenge the viewer to think about our current precarity, in which militarization and warfare have become commonplace “solutions” to global conflicts. Darghouth’s work has appeared in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Beirut, Dubai, Qatar, Amman, Istanbul, Buenos Aires, North America, and France.
Born in 1963 in Beirut, Lebanon, Jean-Marc Nahas is best known for his caricature figures and animalistic motifs that capture the psychological dimensions of war, civil conflict, and political turmoil. An example of this is his Catastrophe series (2006), which merges together sketched drawings of figures – some caught in the conflict, others screaming – and rabid animals, that are bound together to create a scene that attests to the confusion and chaos he is seeking to depict. His sketches are characterized by black and white frenetic lines that are washed over with sinister reds or bold blue backgrounds – a visual technique that translates well to his street artworks. Nahas moved to Paris at the age of 17 with no formal artistic training and was later admitted to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts where he studied for five years. He has participated in numerous exhibitions in Lebanon, Syria, Dubai, Canada, Brussels, and the United Kingdom and his work is held in several collections including The British Museum, London, and Bank Audi.
Leila Kubba was born of a Swiss American mother and Iraqi father. She was educated in Baghdad and went on to graduate with a National Diploma of Art and Design from the Manchester School of Art and Architecture in the UK and also studied for a period of five years at the Corcoran College of Art in Washington DC, as well as taking courses in printmaking and painting at Saint Martins College, London.
Born in 1980 in Qatar, Yasser Al Mulla is an architectural engineer
and a visual artist. His monochromatic line drawings are
reminiscent of Sufi cultural and traditional aesthetics.
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.
B. 1988, Bojnurd, Iran
Alaa Sharabi was born in Damascus in 1988 and studied printmaking at the University of Damascus where he was later appointed as an assistant professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts. His bold paintings combine rich palettes with frenetic lines and complex compositions.