Light Out of Darkness   A project for mother and daughter team Mouna and Shireen, the Atassi Foundation is providing a much-needed platform for Syrian artists, from the displaced and diaspora to those who have helped define the country’s art   When the Atassi family left their native Syria for Dubai in 2012, many longstanding...

A Dynamic Dialogue   Created with passion and brimming with movement, Shahida Ahmed’s latest works mark an exciting new phase for an artist who remains determined to break down barriers     If 2016 was a year of preparation for Shahida Ahmed, then 2017 is most definitely one of putting plans into action.   The mixed-media...

Behind the Masks   A multidisciplinary visual artist, Nedim Kufi was born in Baghdad and has lived and worked in the Netherlands since 1994. Here, he talks to Artscoops about his latest exhibition, Virtuality, a series of pop-art style portraits inspired by social media avatars, on display at the Dar Al-Anda Art Gallery, Amman,...

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...