“This mixed media painting is part of a series of works entitled When We Are Gone that I began in 2019 In this series, I am tackling the concept of the inevitable destiny of Death of both individuals and countries, a theme triggered by witnessing the ongoing deterioration of Lebanon. When we are gone, we leave behind photographic time-frozen traces of our existence represented here through a vintage photo of a Moorish woman from the early 20th century silkscreened on an aluminum sheet as well as a photo-etched zinc plate featuring two unidentified Lebanese schoolgirls from the early 1970s who were and probably are still celebrating their timed existence.”

Mohammad El Rawas was born in Beirut in 1951. He studied painting at the Institute of Fine Art at the Lebanese University, and graduated in 1975 with honors receiving the Lebanese University Scholarship to study abroad. The year of his graduation marked the beginning of the Lebanese Civil War, leading the artist to stop painting and to leave his country for Morocco where he stayed for two years in Rabat, teaching art and resuming painting. He returned to Beirut in 1979 to hold his first solo show before joining the Slade School of Fine Art in London in the same year. Upon his return to Beirut in 1981 with a Masters Degree in Printmaking, he started his academic career at the Lebanese University and the American University of Beirut that lasted for twenty-seven years. Since 1979, El Rawas has held twelve individual exhibitions in Beirut, London and Dubai and has participated in more than forty international art biennials, art fairs and exhibitions in England, US, Norway, Tunisia, Brazil, Japan, Kuwait, France, Holland, Egypt, UAE, Poland and China. In these international shows, he claimed five prizes and honorable mentions, including in 2007, the prize of the Alexandria Biennial of the Art of the Mediterranean Countries, for his first installation and video art piece “Sit down Please!” His work is found in many museums and public collections in Lebanon, Tunisia, Jordan, UAE, Norway, Paris and England.