Mazen Rifai

Mazen Rifai is a Beirut-based artist and architect who was born in Baalbek in 1957. He holds a degree in Fine Arts from the Academia de Macerata, Italy and another in Interior Design/Architecture from the Lebanese University (LU).

Since he decided to focus on his art, Rifai’s beloved hometown has remained his primary source of inspiration, with its scenic landscapes captured and shared in small-scale paintings characterised by thick brushstrokes.

Rifai’s paintings are created in a broad palette of watercolours, which give them a wonderful transparency and luminosity. A lack of distracting features, meanwhile, provides a sense of tranquillity and adds to the contemplative nature of his art. In some works, vast, cloudless azure skies meet pine-green meadows, with a lack of borders or boundaries accentuating the expansive vista. Other pieces treat audiences to a tapestry of fields, carved up by colours that range from corn yellow to earth brown, set in hilly formations against daytime pale blue skies, indigo, starlit nights or rich red, breathtaking sunsets. 

Rifai’s oeuvre also includes delightful rustic village scenes, ranging from wooden doorways viewed through delightful archways, edged with plants and complete with a well, to delightful pathways leading viewers down through the Bekaa valley along a route edged with trees and farmhouses typical of the region.

Mazen Rifai’s work has been exhibited extensively over the decades in both solo shows and collectives. Individual exhibitions of his work have taken place locally and abroad, most recently at venues that include Galerie Rochane (2016), Epreuve d’Artiste (2016), Galerie Aida Cherfan (2014), Gallery 6 (2010), and Agial Gallery (2007) in Lebanon, and at Galerie 34 Bonaparte (2016) and Galerie Alex Menem (2009) in Paris. In addition, he has participated in numerous editions of Sursock Museum’s Salon d’Automne. 

Mazen Rifai worked extensively in the field of instruction before taking the decision to focus on architecture and painting. He was appointed professor of fine arts at the LU and went on to become Head of Department – a position he held from 1987 until 1993. He also holds the title of art director at Engineers, Consulting & Contracting, a well-established engineering and architecture firm.

Earlier career milestones include making a significant contribution to the Beirut Central District Reconstruction Plan with Oger Liban in 1984. He remains a consultant in this field for the Council for Development and Reconstruction. 

Rifai Mazen is a member of the Baalbeck International Festival Committee. He has also published two books, titled ‘Baalbeck Black and White’ (Dar Al -Nahar -2007) and ‘Baalbeck 1981-2011’ (Fine arts Publishing – 2011).