Lots of Thrills   Celebrity auctioneer Edward Rising will be in Beirut to oversee Artscoops’ Middle East Modern and Contemporary Auction on March 11th. He talks to our team, ahead of the event, about the drama, unpredictability and passion that sales produce   Ask auctioneer Edward Rising what his role requires and he’ll tell you...

Of Distant Memories, Discovery and Displacement   While Leila Kubba’s beloved Baghdad might have changed beyond recognition, the city remains very much alive in her art, as does the plight of others separated from their birthplace     Given personal circumstances and the current global refugee crisis, perhaps it’s not surprising...

The Story Behind the Subject Flavia Codsi talks to Artscoops about her landmarks, love for old houses and life-size portraitures                               What prompted your move from interior design into art? I’d enjoyed painting as a hobby from a young age, but it was when I began taking part in collective exhibitions in the...

Modern Art, Mountain High The Modern and Contemporary Art Museum in picturesque Alita is playing a pivotal role by preserving the past and filling the voids for the next generation, as co-founder Cesar Nammour explains   When the art historian Cesar Nammour put out a request for documents about contemporary Lebanese art as part of a bid to...

Celebrating Five Thousand Years of Multi-Culturalism   An exhibition of art and artefacts at the Aga Khan Museum looks past Syria’s troubled present to its rich and diverse history   With events in Syria rarely out of the news, it’s become difficult to think back past the conflict that rages on across the country and its devastating...

From Apps to Aleppo   When two seemingly polarised universes featured in the same news bulletins recently, the fine art photographer Khaled Akil decided to bring them together, with fascinating results.   Who better to highlight the horrors of war to as wide an audience as possible than the characters of the world’s most popular...

Relatively Speaking   Hailing from a famous artistic lineage, the young Paul Guiragossian is carving his very own niche on a familiar stage   Despite his impressive artistic heritage, Paul Guiragossian admits that it was viewing paintings by some of the old masters, rather than the influence of his family, that prompted him to...

The Alchemist of Lebanese Design   An upcoming exhibition on a Jungle Protocol, Tradition and Etiquette theme will help House of Today continue its support of emerging local talent, the project’s founder, Cherine Magrabi-Tayeb, explains     Now a key fixture on Lebanon’s design calendar, the House of Today’s biennial exhibition is...

Paradise Lost, Memories Found   The Iranian artist Firouz FarmanFarmaian tackles the sensitive themes of exile and identity in a collection of works currently on show at the Shirin Gallery, New York, while also embarking on a journey of self-discovery     While many of us have stumbled upon long-forgotten family photos of past...