Fatat Bahmad

Fatat Bahmad is a Lebanese contemporary painter who was born in 1973 in Beirut, Lebanon. 

She moved with her family to Kfar Melki, in the Sidon District in the south of the country, when the civil war broke out. While Bahmad returned to Beirut to pursue her studies, the delightful flora and foliage, and picturesque scenery in Kfar Melki have remained a key source of inspiration in her art and she continues to spend time there today.

Fatat Bahmad studied at the Institute of Fine Arts at the Lebanese University in Beirut, graduating with a BA in painting in 1994. She later enrolled at The Institute of Oriental Letters, University Saint Joseph and obtained her MA in Education in 2010.

Bahmad’s artworks pay tribute to the natural beauty of the country’s southern region, with its natural beauty captured in oil on canvas and wood, and sometimes watercolour on paper, in a rich medley of colours that are oftentimes pastel and at other times vibrant.

From lush landscapes that include rolling hills featuring a tapestry of fields divided by colour and crop, to seasonal flora in private gardens and seaside scenes, Bahmad’s art is uplifting and bursting with life, reaffirming its creator’s love for nature. 

Fatat Bahmad’s work has been exhibited widely in Lebanon and abroad. She held her first solo show in 2004 at Zamen Gallery, Lebanon, with several others following, including exhibitions at: Ourjouwan Gallery, Lebanon (2013); ‘A Language of Spring’, Artspace Hamra (2017); and National Centre of Visual Arts, Damascus (2020). In 2022, her work was the subject of a solo show on Artscoops, titled ‘Life in Full Bloom’.

Bahmad’s art has featured in several collectives. In 2016, it was showcased in a dual show at Artspace Hamra with the work of fellow Lebanese artist Louma Rabah. Titled ‘True Colours: An Exhibition of Recent Works by Fatat Bahmad and Louma Rabah’, the show invited audiences to “visit and explore the still lives, interior and exterior spaces opened up in this dialogue of colours between two distinguished Lebanese artists”. In the same year, Fatat Bahmad’s work was shown at the 32nd Salon d’Automne at the Sursock Museum.

During her career, Bahmad has taken part in a range of special artwork activities in Lebanon and Europe. In addition, she has taught art in local schools since 1995. Bahmad divides her time between Beirut and Kfar Melki.