To celebrate its thirtieth anniversary in June 2023, the Janine Rubeiz gallery run by Nadine Begdache launched a competition in December 2022 for new talent on the Lebanese art scene. In order to establish an intergenerational dialogue, participants in the competition were asked to choose a work that particularly inspired them from among those by pioneering artists such as Etel Adnan, Shafic Abboud, Yvette Achkar, Huguette Caland, Joseph Chahfé, Bassam Geitani, Laure Ghorayeb, Joanna Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, Joseph Harb, Lamia Joreige, Samir Khaddaje, Ibrahim Marzouk, Jamil Molaeb, Zad Moultaka, Aref el-Rayess, Antonio Segui and Hanibal Srouji. Then, based on their choice, they had to renew the chosen work and adapt it to current times.
The exhibition will showcase twenty-five new talents until 14 July. For example, there are photographs by Mario el-Khoury that refer to an oil on canvas by Chafic Abboud, and ceramics representing a certain "Lebaneseness" by the young architect Diana Bou Salman, inspired by Joanna Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige's project "Wonder Beirut 1997-2006".
Photo: "Centrale" by Joanna Raad. Copyrights L'Orient-le-Jour.