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Ayman Baalbaki (1975)
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Ayman Baalbaki was born in 1975 in Odeisse, South Lebanon. As a
child growing up during the Lebanese civil war and Israeli
occupation, he was forced to leave his village and relocate to
Beirut. He moved to the neighborhood of Wadi Abu Jamil, which he
has described in interviews as an overcrowded, forced melting
pot of people from different ethnic, religious and cultural
backgrounds. Now located in the exclusive Downtown district,
during the war, the area was a refuge for the displaced.
His background and childhood have greatly influenced Baalbaki’s
work as an artist over the past 10 years. As a result, many of
his paintings feature aspects of his life as a refugee in Beirut
or reconstruction efforts in the city in the post-war era. “The
Lebanese don’t want to address the issue of the war,” he says,
“but at the same time it’s everywhere. I am part of a generation
of artists and writers who lived 20 years of it and don’t have
anything to say but about the war.”
Today, Baalbaki lives in Beirut after having returned from an
extended stay in Paris, where he is pursuing his doctorate
degree. His work is increasingly gaining recognition, with his
most recent exhibition garnering positive reviews from the
media. The local English daily, The Daily Star, stated: “For all
the biographical content of Baalbaki’s paintings, what makes his
current exhibition work – and work well – is the extent to which
he goes beyond himself in his art. His studies of the kaffiyeh,
the army helmet and the hood are both probing and relevant. His
depictions of the Tower of Babel place him squarely in the art
historical lineage of Pieter Brueghel the Elder.”
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