Afaf Zurayk

Afaf Zurayk (b. 1948) a prize-winning, multimedia Lebanese artist and published writer who was born in Beirut, into an academic family. Zurayk’s talent was evident early on, prompting her parents to send her to art school. As a teenager, she was also taught privately by the Lebanese artist Helen Khal, who had a major influence on her style. In 1970, Zurayk attended the American University of Beirut (AUB), graduating with a BA in Fine Arts with Distinction. She continued her studies in the US, where she obtained an MA in Islamic art from Harvard University two years later. 

Zurayk’s art is rooted in the effects of Lebanon’s civil war and other catastrophic events, including the Beirut Port explosion, from the upheaval, torment and trauma involved to the surprising and welcome moments of positivity. “During the civil war in Lebanon, I experienced wrenching fear through the destruction of the life and the self that I knew,” she has said. “Yet, I was gifted with grace and love in the midst of overwhelming violence.”

Searching questions that span topical issues related to human values, hopes and fears, are asked with candour and directness on canvases in oil paint that is layered with a dry brush.

Nature has also played a key role in inspiring her writing, especially her poetry, which sometimes runs concurrently with her work. “I coupled painting with writing to express feelings of both agency and belonging. I shaped a new sense of self and began to appreciate meditative solitude as a way to till my ground creatively. The privilege of being in and with nature was restorative and generative,” she has said. “My poetry emerged from a wellspring of love, and I grew. Painting and writing in loving awe, I remain within, crossing those passages that connect us in kindness, gently.”