I'm getting more and more excited about his pictures

Semaan Khawam

Born in Lebanon in 1974, Semaan Khawam continues to live and work in Beirut.  The self-taught multidisciplinary Khawam is a painter, sculptor, graffiti and installation artist whose work is informed by the daily reality of the city that he lives in.

Khawam’s uses his work to draw attention to political contradictions, social injustice, the lack of cultural appreciation and other uncomfortable  realities.  Early in 2012, he spray painted an armed soldier on a wall in Gemmayzeh to remind people of the Lebanese Civil War, something that he feels has been forgotten.  His arrest for this act drew international attention to the limits on free speech and artistic expression that Khawam and other Lebanese artists work within inadvertently but also ironically reinforcing his earlier messages.

In addition to being a visual artist, the multi-talented Khawam is also an actor, director, script-writer, prop designer for film and theatre, poet and internationally-published writer.  His art has been exhibited in Lebanon and Europe.

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