Hanibal Srouji
Breaking Point
Works from the 90s
April 18 – May 13, 2023
The work of Hanibal Srouji presented in this exhibition dates back to a crucial period in the history of his country, Lebanon. It was conceived within the quietness and the vacuum that the “end of the civil war” had created. The works reflect a particular temporal state; within which time is contained and prolonged. They assemble different visions of space, memories, and temporal states of mind.
Srouji proposes mixed references between visions of inside and outside. The paintings are knitted with memories of past harmonized spaces and through extended temporalities. The work explores, in abstract form, the effects of uncertain times. Each artwork is conceived within different color dominances, examining intimacy, traces left by conflict, and colored hopeful fields and surfaces.
Here, the painting is born within thrusts of formal visual decisions and painterly actions standing at the edge of despair, while color gives a hopeful outlook towards what is yet to come. The paintings extend a resistance to literal representation by leaving hints of the artist’s attachments and references.
Srouji employs color and marks as an index of time, trying to capture a state of transition, yet, always stretching a vulnerable temporal field, linking past and present. The immediacy of gesture is combined with great care for control, structure and complexity. His paintings remain contemplative, a stance in a state of in-between.
About the artist
Born in Lebanon in 1957, Hanibal Srouji lives and works between Beirut and Paris. He holds a Master’s degree in Fine Arts from Concordia University in Canada (1987). He had held different teaching positions at universities in the United States, Canada and was teaching at the Sorbonne, in Paris, before joining the Lebanese American University in 2010, where he holds, today, the position of Chairperson of the Art & Design Department, as Associate Professor of Practice.
He has held numerous solo and collective exhibitions in several countries, namely “Into the Clouds”, at the Singapore Art fair and “The Mac International first open arts prize” in Belfast, Ireland, in 2014.
“Breaking Point” is Srouji’s 8th solo show with Galerie Janine Rubeiz, following “Particles” in 1997, “Transformations” in 2000, “Sous le Signe de la Légerté” in 2003, “Touches” in 2006, “Offrandes” in 2009, “Tête dans les nuages” in 2014, and “Let Us Dream” in 2018.
Srouji was featured at Art Dubai, Abu Dhabi Art, Art14 London and Beirut Art Fair. His work has been acquired by prominent public and private collections, such as the “Alcan Collection” in Canada, and the “Carmignac Foundation” in France. In 2013, Galerie Janine Rubeiz, representing him in Lebanon, published a book titled: “Hanibal Srouji: painting fire, water, earth and air.” He is also represented in by June Kelly Gallery in New York, and Galerie Eulenspiegel in Basel.