“I wanted to incorporate in my work a textual aspect which is omnipresent in Arab culture.” —Ayman Baalbaki
Born in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1975, Ayman Baalbaki is a Lebanese visual artist working across painting, sculpture, installation, and assemblage. He obtained an undergraduate degree in Fine Arts from the Lebanese University, Beirut (1998), a graduate degree in Art-Space from the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, Paris (2002), and a research post-graduate degree in the Art of Images and Contemporary Art from the Université Paris VIII (2003). He also participated in the Ayloul Summer Academy in Amman under Marwan Kassab Bashi (2001, 2002).
Baalbaki’s practice engages the architectural and human aftermath of conflict through materially dense surfaces and constructed objects. In painting, he is known for large canvases of masked figures and ruined façades rendered with thick impasto and gestural brushwork. In parallel, his sculptural and installation work incorporates found materials, vehicles, and built structures that address themes of displacement, migration, and the traces of war.
He has presented solo exhibitions including Transfiguration Apocalyptique (Beirut, 2008), Ceci n’est pas la Suisse (London, 2009), Beirut Again and Again (London, 2011), and Blowback (Beirut, 2016). In 2011, Baalbaki participated in The Future of a Promise, a collateral exhibition at the 54th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. More recently, in 2022, he represented Lebanon at the 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia with the pavilion The World in the Image of Man.
Baalbaki has been awarded the Prix Empreintes by the Lebanese Ministry of Culture (1996), first prize “Cm3” at CIUP, Paris (2003), and the Silver Medal in Painting at the Jeux de la Francophonie, Niamey (2005).
His works are held in public collections including Tate Modern (London), the British Museum (London), Institut du Monde Arabe (Paris), Fondation Carmignac (France), the Farjam Foundation (Dubai), Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art (Doha), the Ramzi and Saeda Dalloul Art Foundation (Beirut), KA Collection (Beirut), and the Elie Khouri Art Foundation (Beirut).
