“Looking at the Bright Side”

Beirut drowns our daily life with scenarios that leave us blind to the positive. It is as if our eyes have become immune to seeing the bright side, no matter how many times we change the angle we are observing from.

The artist challenges us by digging for the beauty in the hostility, and by going a step further in shedding the light on the daily dose of tension the Lebanese face in their current lives. A splash of color and a hint of naivety are but to be found on Kupelian’s canvases, leaving the viewer wondering about the random urbanization of Beirut, that ironically is a building block of the city’s charm. Kupelian’s garbage crisis, that was painted - as a strange premonition - way before the garbage crisis invaded the lives of the city’s inhabitants, clearly exemplifies how entrenched the artist is in Beirut’s landscape and more importantly how it is perceived by its citizens.

The artist takes the viewer on an emotional roller coaster not only through his themes, but also through his colorful brush strokes that depict the noise and chaos that surround our city. It is as if the he manages to make the viewer come to terms with what the city has to offer him, and the more one looks into the canvases, the more witty details are to be found that leave us with a smile.

Kupelian is highly aware of the helplessness we each carry in causing fundamental changes in the way the city is organized, and suggests through his colorful and striking canvases, that until we change we must at least give this city a chance by looking at the bright side.