Proceeds of the paintings sold will benefit Agenda Culturel and #we_help

Brahim Samaha and Beirut – A love story.

Shortly after graduating from the Rome University of Fine Arts, Brahim came back to Beirut to establish his workshop on Saint-Nicolas Stairs in Gemmayze -- the neighborhood in which he has grown up -- and founded Laboratoire d’Art, an NGO that provides an innovative forum for artworks and presents the work of prominent and little-know Lebanese and international artists.

Laboratoire d’Art hosts several events to promote different art disciplines including an annual outdoor short film festival organized on Saint Nicolas Stairs since 2009: Cabriolet Film Festival.

Brahim, a painter and etcher, has Beirut, its public spaces, its cultural scene and especially its people at the heart of his art. His latest exhibitions are a reflection of his attachment to the city and what it represents.

An exhibition to support cultural and social causes.

August 4th, 2020 -  A turning point. The involvement of the whole team in cleaning the neighborhood and mending the souls was obviously not enough. What is Beirut without its landmarks and people? What is the city without its culture, heritage and faces?

The workshop looked like a wrecked ship and it was an instant thought that the artworks that could be saved will be put to the service of a good cause. 

The aftermath was painful as some paintings were reduced to dust and others badly destroyed. Luckily, many were saved and restored. 

In addition to few new and unpublished paintings, the event will mainly feature artworks from two previous exhibitions: 

“Beirut. Echo of the Silence.” (2018) 

A solo exhibition with a series of paintings in which brahim does not portray still frames; he blows life into them with a meticulous technique combined with passion and deep knowledge of the city’s transfiguration. The metal leaf and perspectives he incorporates into his artwork catch the daylight variations and recreate them right on his canvas. You are not looking at one single moment in Beirut but at its dynamic colors through time, from dawn to dusk.

“Camouflage” (2018) 

The exhibition is above all a tribute to nature, its secrets and tireless cycle, breathing life into all creatures, fauna and flora. Brahim explored another of his cherished art making techniques: printmaking. Just like they hide the surface of the earth, tree leaves are hiding words within the artwork frame. Unspoken words that we camouflage in an attempt to ignore the existence of these feelings or realities. The uniqueness of each composition reveals hidden letters. 

The proceeds from the sales of the artworks will go towards a cultural institution and a social organization.

She.

Because Beirut is this strong, beautiful and opinionated lady. An old soul with her deep scars but a perpetual young heart beating to the tempo of her sea breeze. She bewitches her people, for staying with her is misery, but leaving her is tragedy. She indeed is the artist’s beauty and the beast.

For her, eternal lover to anyone who has touched her soil, we will rise again. This exhibition is but a minor drop in oceans of local and international initiatives. However, “She.” an exhibition coming from the heart, put together with a simmering pot of contradictory emotions ranging from anger to resilience, and most importantly driven by passion.