Asaad Arabi
Biography
Born in Damascus in 1941, Asaad Arabi has been recognized as a prominent contemporary Arab artist since the 1980s. Featured in exhibitions throughout the region and abroad, his works are housed in several prestigious collections, notably the Arab World Institute in Paris, the Barcelona Contemporary Museum of Art, and South Korea’s Museum in Seoul.
His most recent exhibitions include a handful of well-received solo and group shows with Ayyam Gallery to which he has contributed a variety of canvases and has demonstrated an expansive range of painting. A graduate of the Faculty of Fine Arts in Damascus, Arabi went on to receive a diploma in painting from the Higher Institute of Fine Arts in Paris in 1983 and later earned a PhD in aesthetics from the distinguished Sorbonne University in 1987. Arabi has been based in France since 1975, where he has undertaken extensive art research and has penned a significant collection of art writings in both French and Arabic. As such, he is also widely revered as a prominent aesthetic theorist.
Beginning his career at the end of Syria’s modernist period, his paintings span decades of art and include numerous styles. Although he began depicting the old streets of Damascus with an acute sense of realism, this quickly gave way to figurative portrayals that relied heavily on elements of Cubism and abstraction.
From a method of painting that delved into the realm of geometric abstraction to the vibrant form of Expressionism that characterizes his canvases today, Arabi’s work has traversed multiple international developments in art.
Artist Press
Representer le nu dans le monde arabeDownload PDF (351 K)
HighArt Interview, Aishti Magazine
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Celebrates One Year Anniversary with Asaad Arabi, What's On December 2007
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Artist Exhibitions
Asaad Arabi, Nostalgia 12 Sep - 27 Oct, 2011View Exhibition
Asaad Arabi "Masked Bodies", Ayyam Gallery, Beirut 10 Dec, 2009 - 22 Jan, 2010
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Visual Dialogue 7 Mar - 25 , 2009
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Black vs Colour 16 Oct - 30 Nov, 2008
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Asaad Arabi Solo Exhibition 11 Nov - 29 , 2007
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Artist Publications
Visual Dialogue, Asaad ARABI & Othman MOUSSAView Publication
Asaad Arabi
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Asaad Arabi, "Masked Bodies" 2009
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Selected Works
AA102 Asaad ARABI 'Damascus in Rush Hour' 120 X 180 cm. Acrylic on Canvas 2008
AA140 Asaad ARABI 'The Start of the Drawing' 190 X 186 cm. Acrylic on Canvas 2009
AA158 Asaad ARABI ‘Talk of the Soul’ 150 X 150 cm. Acrylic on Canvas 2011