Beautiful Boundaries   While Beirut’s wrought iron handrails undoubtedly serve a functional purpose, a project by the architect in conservation, Mazen Haidar, reminds us that they are also a key component of the city’s rich architectural heritage, representing works of art in themselves     What made you decide to focus...

Lines Let Loose The artist Sumayyah Samaha is walking better and further than she has done for years. It is perhaps fitting, then, that a new, landmark series of works, in which she uses charcoal and oil together on the same surface for the first time, is both dynamic and free flowing                    While a new series of works...

A Path Carved with Passion Unconventional, but totally committed, the Russian-born artist Liudmila Panenkova is following her dreams, while delighting new audiences with her unworldly, magical artwork If it hadn’t been for Liudmila Panenkova’s burning passion for art and determination to follow it through, she may well still be working...

Fleeting Feelings  A project in the pipeline by the highly respected photographer, editor and designer, Saër Karam, sees him doing what he does best; capturing emotions and creatingstandalone stories with a camera                   How does your background in journalism and instinct for seeking out and telling a story steer your choice...

Mainstream Beckons Janet Rady, specialist in Middle Eastern contemporary art and guest curator of the ‘I AM’ exhibition, envisages a new era for Arab art in which marginalisation is largely a thing of the past With its groundbreaking content, exciting list of participants and broader implications for Arab art, the ‘I AM’ exhibition,...

The Mind's Eye Rose Issa’s project at the Beirut Art Fair will consider the impact of recent regional socio-economic issues on both collectors and artists   When the independent curator, writer and producer Rose Issa organised her first Arab film festival over 30 years ago while living in Paris, it was fuelled by a desire to show an...

When Colour Meets Sound    Conflicts around creativity have clearly made way for cross-inspiration and harmonious co-existence in a new solo exhibition of works by the artist and musician Walid Nahas     While a new solo exhibition highlights Walid Nahas’s passion for both music and art, it also relays the message loud and clear...

Seeing the Light  The artist Fanny Seller has found a new way of working, using a medium ideally suited to her love for layers and luminosity. If it hadn’t been for a leaking roof in the rambling old palace, ‘Mansion House’, a collective and alternative work space in Beirut, where the artist Fanny Seller was working for four years, then...

A Love for Letters   The Iraqi calligrapher, painter and sculptor, Sabah Arbilli, talks to Artscoops about the influence that roots, border crossings and fresh starts have had on his work     What inspired you to use calligraphy in your work?   As a young student at school, I was always fascinated with the composition and...