Farid Haddad

Born in Beirut, the painter and media artist Farid Haddad found himself drawn to the visual arts early on in life, before gaining a BA at the Department of Fine Arts and Performing Arts, American University of Beirut (AUB), followed by an MFA in Painting and Drawing from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. A Fulbright scholarship then enabled him to spend six months in New York exploring lithography and embossing. He went on to teach drawing and painting at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and later, design and multimedia art at the New England College, where he earned the State Council of the Arts Prize in 1983 and 1984. Haddad has embraced a variety of styles over the years, ranging from constructivism to pieces drawing on the color-field, Abstraction style of painting, which has its roots in 1940s’ New York and is characterised by overlapping pigments painted into the canvas in perpetual bands of colour. More recently, he has gravitated towards experimental Abstraction in works marked by loose shapes and fluid brushstrokes, exhibiting spontaneity and exciting textures. Haddad has participated in more than 20 solo exhibitions and over 50 group exhibitions in the Middle East, Europe and the US. Today, he works out of his studio in Concord, New Hampshire.