Rima Amyuni

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Rima Amyuni is a prolific artist who brings forth in her work a unique pictorial language developed throughout her three decades of painting. She often paints grand-scale landscapes, relaxed portraits, or playful still-lifes, melding observation and imagination to develop her striking compositions. Her impressionistic work uses light and vivacious colour to create whimsical, otherworldly quality. The allure of her paintings comes not only from the tendency towards an emotional view of nature and self, but the artist's capability of absorbing and applying the language of colour. The themes of her work provide an unconventional twist to seemingly traditional subject matter. Amyuni was formally trained at the Byam Shaw School of Arts in London, and she later pursued a degree at Columbia University in New York City. After 10 years of living abroad, she returned to her native Lebanon and lived in the beautiful suburban city of Yarzé–– a hill with villas and gardens overlooking Beirut and the Mediterranean Sea, surrounded by a pine forest. Amyuni says, “Yarzé gave me a lot of food for thought and feelings, and gave birth to numerous paintings and drawings.” The Mediterranean light inspires her work, and her subject matter and technique are deeply influenced by her natural surroundings. Her return to Lebanon resulted in a prolific period of developing works and marked an important shift in her career as an artist. Amyuni taught at the Lebanese Academy of Arts (ALBA) and two secondary schools: Louise Wegman and Jesus and Mary. The artist has notably exhibited in various group and solo shows in Beirut, Kuwait, London and New York. In 1995, the Sursock Museum in Beirut awarded her the first prize in painting on the occasion of the XVIIIth “Salon d’Automne”.