Modern and Contemporary Middle Eastern Art Online
Helen Khal was an American artist and critic of Lebanese descent. She started her painting career at the age of 21. She held her first individual exhibition in 1960 in Galerie Alecco Saab in Beirut. Her other one-woman shows took place at Galerie Trois Feuilles d'Or, Beirut (1965); Galerie Manoug, Beirut (1968); at the First National Bank, Allentown, Pennsylvania (1969); in Kaslik, Lebanon (1970); at the Contact Art Gallery, Beirut (1972, 1974 and 1975) and at the Bolivar Gallery in Kingston, Jamaica in 1975. Her work also appeared in the Biennales of Alexandria and São Paulo. She also taught art at the American University of Beirut from 1967 to 1976 and at the Lebanese American University from 1997 to 1980. She inspired many other artists. Helen Khal was also recognized as an author and critic. "From 1966 to 1974, Helen Khal was Art Critic to two Lebanese periodicals, The Daily Star and Monday Morning.
.jpg)
Nadia Kaabi-Linke is a Tunis-born, Berlin-based visual artist best known for her conceptual art and 2011 sculpture Flying Carpets. Her work has explored themes of geopolitics, immigration, and transnational identities. Raised between Tunis, Kyiv, Dubai and Paris, she studied at the Tunis Institute of Fine Arts and received a Ph.D. in philosophy of art from the Sorbonne. Kaabi-Linke won the 2011 Abraaj Group Art Prize, which commissioned Flying Carpets, a hanging cage-like sculpture that casts geometric shadows onto the floor akin to the carpets of Venetian street vendors. The piece was acquired by the New York Guggenheim in 2016 as part of their Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative. Kaabi-Linke also won the Discoveries Prize for emerging art at the 2014 Art Basel Hong Kong. Her works have been collected by the Museum of Modern Art, Dallas Museum of Art, Burger Collection, and Samdani Art Foundation, and exhibited in multiple solo and group shows.
Mohamed Melehi was a Moroccan painter associated with the Casablanca school, a modernist art movement active in the 1960s in Morocco. Melehi became a professor at the School of Fine Arts of Casablanca, teaching painting, sculpture, and photography. In 1969, Melehi and his colleagues of the Casablanca school organized an exposition-manifeste, or protest exhibition, entitled Présence plastique. The artists displayed their works in Jemaa el-Fnaa in the Marrakesh medina, snubbing an official Moroccan art salon of happening at the same time. This exhibition is regarded as the founding moment of modernism in Morocco.
Paul Guiragossian (Armenian Պոլ Կիրակոսյան) was a Lebanese artist of Armenian origin.
Paul Guiragossian is known as the author of many portraits and landscapes. He is also known for his paintings about the life and life of Armenians in migration.
Shafic Abboud, also known as Chafic Abboud, was a renowned Lebanese painter whose artistic journey led him from Beirut to the vibrant art scene of Paris in 1947. Embracing the modernist and abstract movements of the mid 20th century, Abboud honed his skills at the ateliers of prominent artists like Jean Metzinger and Fernand Léger. This exposure influenced his transition from figurative and landscape painting to his signature colorful personal abstractions. Despite his years in France, Abboud remained deeply connected to his oriental roots, drawing inspiration from oral storytelling and Byzantine icons.
Abboud´s creativity extended to ceramics, terracotta, carpets, and lithography. His exceptional talent garnered global recognition, with exhibitions in prestigious venues like Doha's Mathaf and Paris's Institut du Monde Arabe. In May 2012, Beirut Exhibition Center celebrated his artistic legacy in a comprehensive exhibition.
Shirin Neshat is an Iranian visual artist who lives in New York City, known primarily for her work in film, video and photography. Her artwork centers on the contrasts between Islam and the West, femininity and masculinity, public life and private life, antiquity and modernity, and bridging the spaces between these subjects.