The Escape to Joy

A radiant journey through memory, resistance, and the light we carry forward.

The Escape to Joy brings together over 50 recent works by Lebanese artist Fawzi Baalbaki, whose practice spans decades of painting, printmaking, and storytelling through image. Curated by his sons, artists Ayman and Said Baalbaki, the exhibition is both a celebration of Fawzi’s creative legacy and a testament to his ongoing pursuit of hope and clarity through color.

Presented at the DAC’s newly inaugurated space in Beirut’s Stone Garden Building, the exhibition reflects an artist immersed in personal history and ever attuned to the present. Through richly textured surfaces and symbolic compositions, Baalbaki navigates the emotional terrain of postwar memory, resilience, and the everyday struggle for joy. His figures often appear caught mid-movement, ascending, dancing, or stretching toward invisible light. Each canvas becomes a scene of quiet insistence, resisting despair with bursts of saturated color and moments of almost sacred stillness.

This is not an escape from reality, but a return to the joy that persists beneath it.

The Escape to Joy is the first exhibition in DAC’s curatorial program: a space for artist-led narratives, generational dialogue, and regionally anchored cultural work. Fawzi Baalbaki’s presence as both artist and father imbues the show with intimacy and continuity, setting the tone for what DAC aims to nurture: care, conviction, and creative courage across time.