Ayman Baalbaki (b. 1975) often juxtaposes the dark subject matter of his work with ornate backgrounds and bright color palettes, sometimes fastening ready-made fabrics to the canvas before painting. In Building I (2011), he paints derelict structures against a floral background, making the sky appear like kitschy fabric or wallpaper. Realized with Baalbaki’s signature impasto technique, he uses a painting knife to carve into the canvas to create texture. The painting amplifies dark colors to reveal the layers of destruction and fragility in the urban fabric of Lebanon.

Ayman Baalbakiis one of the most prominent living Lebanese contemporary visual artists. Baalbaki is known for two major bodies of works that have evolved through his career: portraits of freedom fighters and representations of architectural structures, mostly in ruins. Baalbaki has painted several civil war landmarks that are covered with shrapnel and bullets–– the Burj al Murr Tower, the Holiday Inn Hotel, the Barakat Sniper Building and the Egg building. These paintings are commemorative but also take on a personal and political dimension. His oeuvre faces the distressing past of Lebanon and emphasizes the absurdity of war. 

Baalbaki’s forceful images were influenced by his childhood memories of both the Lebanese Civil War and the 2006 War which he lived through. He was born in 1975 to a family of artists at the start of the civil war, in an Eastern suburb of Beirut. Originally from Adaisseh, South Lebanon, the Baalbakis were displaced during the strife and forced to move to Beirut. 

Ayman Baalbaki studied at the Lebanese University, then at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (ENSAD) and Université Paris VIII Vincennes. Since the early 2000s, he has gained wide recognition and has been exhibited and acclaimed worldwide. In 2022, his monumental installation Janus Gate was featured at the National Pavilion of Lebanon at the Venice Art Biennale.