Magda Chaaban

Magda Chaaban is an award-winning Lebanese-American multi-disciplinary artist and published author. Multi-talented and versatile, Chaaban returned to painting, which she describes as her “original passion”, after a career that has seen her also successfully embrace jewellery design.

Chaaban’s paintings encapsulate elements of Beirut life, from its “architectural chaos” as she has described it, and colourful characters, to minute details that give the city its individuality.

Lines and squares are hallmarks of her work, while her figures are given names and reveal personalities. They also reappear in ensuing artworks, set against a backdrop of familiar surroundings, from wooden shutters and brick roofs to clotheslines. These, and the addition of elements intrinsically linked to Beirut, such as Chiclets chewing gum, the mishmash of electric wires and its café culture, reaffirm Chaaban’s affection for the city in a style of storytelling which is as observationally astute as it is entertaining. Other elements, from designer footwear and fez to fashion accessories, often bring what have become hallmark splashes of red to the artist’s canvases.  

Chaaban’s art also has a nostalgic and uplifting feel, aligning with the backstory she has shared about the time spent as a child at her grandmother’s house, which provided a haven of tranquility and comfort during the horrific Lebanese civil war.

Chaaban’s success at capturing aspects of Beirut life and her ability to transmit the affection she has for the city onto her canvases have helped to make Chaaban’s work popular with audiences and led to several high-profile shows.

Recent highlights include ‘Departure Gate 3- 07:15’, a solo show in early 2023 at Rebirth Beirut Space, Gemmayzeh, in collaboration with The Gallerist, which explored the dilemma facing Lebanese as to whether to pack and leave their country or stay.

Another talking point was ‘Pile Ou Face’ (Heads or Tails), which was held at the same space, in conjunction with The Gallerist, in 2022. In this show, Chaaban drew on the material in her book ‘Wij Afa’, written during the October Revolution of 2019 and which featured themes mirroring the crisis of that time, alongside her hallmark observations of everyday Lebanese life. In characteristic style, the artworks explored presented in this collection have at their centre two characters, namely Mr Tarboosh and Lady Nof. 

“I think art is the most important vehicle for social change. For Lebanese people, during this crisis, it is a kind of communication that helps find happiness in the little things,” she said in an interview with Al Arabiya English.

“It is a communication through images and colors, which maybe brings some hope for people. It preserves what historical records cannot, like for example, a story behind a painting can describe how it felt to exist in a particular place at a particular time, it’s like writing history.”

Her other collections include: ‘Second Skin’ (2023); ‘Beirut my Inspiration’ (2021); ‘Paradis Perdu’ (2021); ‘Gribouillage des Palettes’ (2019); ‘Unsteady Land’ (2019); ‘Echos’ (2018); ‘Mes Miniatures’ (2017); ‘Unsettled’ (2017); ‘Miami’ (2015); ‘Les Cris Muets’ (2015); ‘A Signature on Papyrus’ (2003/2004); ‘Excès de Noir’ (2002); and ‘Colours of a Kite’.

Magda Chaaban is a member of the Association of Lebanese Artists for Painting and Sculpture (LAAPS) and has had a number of books published.