Hanibal Srouji

{{Short description|Visual artist}}

Hanibal Srouji (born 1957 in Beirut, Lebanon) is a Lebanese painter. He graduated in 1987 from Concordia University, Montreal. He lived in Canada and France before returning in his country. Srouji developed a technique of burning holes in his paintings{{cite web |url= http://www.agendaculturel.com/Lartiste_du_week-end_Paroles_d%E2%80%99artistes_Hanibal_Srouji |title= L'ARTISTE DU WEEK-END: Hanibal Srouji |publisher= L’Agenda Culturel |access-date= 23 January 2012 |archive-date= 3 February 2023 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20230203023804/http://www.agendaculturel.com/Lartiste_du_week-end_Paroles_d%E2%80%99artistes_Hanibal_Srouji |url-status= dead }} after having participated to numerous workshops in America and Europe, including the Triangle Arts Trust.{{cite web |url= http://triangleworkshop.org/2010/04/hanibal-srouji-95-zig-zag-2010-22nd-edition/ |title= Hanibal Srouji ('95), ZIG ZAG 2010 22nd ÉDITION |date= April 2010 |publisher= Triangle Arts Association |access-date= 23 January 2012 |archive-date= 3 July 2011 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110703113410/http://triangleworkshop.org/2010/04/hanibal-srouji-95-zig-zag-2010-22nd-edition/ |url-status= dead }} He currently teaches at the Lebanese American University.

Life and work

Srouji's art deals with his nostalgia for Lebanon, as he emigrated at the beginning of the Lebanese Civil War.{{cite web |url= http://www.beirutexhibitioncenter.com/learn/artist/hanibal-srouji |title= SROUJI Hanibal – Beirut Exhibition Center |publisher= Beirut Exhibition Center |access-date=23 January 2012}} At the beginning of the war, Srouji served as Red Cross volunteer in Southern Lebanon, an experience he later compared to horror movies.{{cite book |last1=Buchakjian |first1=Gregory |editor1-first=Nora |editor1-last=Boustany |title=New Art from Lebanon |url=http://www.buchakjian.net/publication/convergence/buchakjian-territory-space-body.pdf |year=2010 |publisher=APEAL |isbn=978-9953-0-1680-1}} He ultimately escaped from Sidon by boat to Cyprus before emigrating to Canada. Shortly after the end of the war, Srouji traveled back to Lebanon to try to pick up the pieces.{{cite web |url=http://www.ragmag.co/article/the-war-inside |title=The War Inside |author=Maha Majzoub |publisher=Ragmag |access-date=25 January 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120908040233/http://www.ragmag.co/article/the-war-inside |archive-date=8 September 2012 }}

Hanibal Srouji became known for using a blow-torch to create small hales and lines. His paintings remind one of bullet-marked walls of crippled buildings in Beirut and encompass the human emotions in the aftermath of the civil war.{{cite journal |last1=El-Zein |first1=Roula |year=2007 |title=Hanibal Srouji: A song for freedom |journal=Canvas Magazine |volume=3 |issue=5 |publisher=Mixed Media Publishing |url=http://www.hanibalsrouji.com/presse/canvas/canvas_article.doc |access-date=25 January 2012 |archive-date=5 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305014135/http://www.hanibalsrouji.com/presse/canvas/canvas_article.doc |url-status=dead }} Another series has been dominated by vertical lines that represent the bars of a cage, as signs of confinement, but can also be read as bars of a musical composition.{{cite news |title= A matter of artistic perspective |author= Kaelen Wilson-Goldie |url= http://www.dailystar.com.lb/ArticlePrint.aspx?id=96875&mode=print |newspaper=The Daily Star |date= 2006-04-18 |access-date=25 January 2012}}

Although Srouji is considered as an abstract painter,{{cite web |url= http://www.artnet.com/galleries/exhibitions.asp?gid=79931&cid=243974 |title= June Kelly Gallery |year=2011 |publisher=Artnet |access-date=25 January 2012}} his recent work, Terre/Mer ("land/sea"), evoked landscapes.

Awards

{{BLP unsourced section|date=September 2017}}

  • Ahmed Asseleh Prize, Algiers, 1999{{cite web |url=http://europia.org/Hanibal/Bio.htm |title=Hanibal SROUJI |publisher=Europia Productions |access-date=26 February 2018}}

  • "Mérite et dévouement français", Art Silver Medal, 1997
  • 49th Saint-Cloud exhibition Grand Prize, Musée des Avelines, 1997.

Publications

{{BLP unsourced section|date=September 2017}}

  • Hanibal Srouji: Painting fire, water, earth and air, Gregory Buchakjian and Sary Tadros (Galerie Janine Rubeiz, 2013){{cite web |url=http://www.antoineonline.com/Livre_Hanibal_Srouji_Peindre_Le_Feu_Leau_La_Terre_de_Gregory_Buchakjian_Sary_Tadros_9789953025926.aspx?productCode=0009789953025926 |title=Hanibal Srouji : peindre le feu, l'eau, la terre et l'air |publisher=AntoineOnline |access-date=26 February 2018 |archive-date=17 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220117190930/https://www.antoineonline.com/Livre_Hanibal_Srouji_Peindre_Le_Feu_Leau_La_Terre_de_Gregory_Buchakjian_Sary_Tadros_9789953025926.aspx?productCode=0009789953025926 |url-status=dead }}
  • Paroles d’Artistes: Hanibal Srouji (L’Agenda Culturel, 2010)

Selected exhibitions

=Solo exhibitions=

  • "Anti Gravity", Galerie Eulenspiegel, Basel, Switzerland,2016
  • Into the Clouds, Singapore Art Fair, with Galerie Janine Rubeiz, Singapore, 2014
  • Head in the Clouds, Galerie Janine Rubeiz, Beirut, 2014
  • Cages, June Kelly Gallery, New York, 2011
  • Healing Bands, Europia, Paris, 2011
  • Hanibal Srouji, FFA Private Bank, Beirut, 2010
  • Healing Bands, Galerie Eulenspiegel, Basel, 2009
  • Offrandes, Galerie Janine Rubeiz, Beirut, 2009
  • Touches, Galerie Janine Rubeiz, Beirut, 2006
  • Hanibal Srouji, Service Culturel Municipal, Gentilly, 2005
  • Hanibal Srouji, Galerie Eulenspiegel, Basel, 2004
  • Hanibal Srouji, Galerie Janine Rubeiz, Beirut, 2003
  • Transformations, Galerie Janine Rubeiz, Beirut, 2003
  • Particules, Galerie Janine Rubeiz, Beirut, 1997

=Group exhibitions=

  • "Musee Sursock, 32e Salon D’AutomneE", Sursock Museum, Beirut, 2016
  • "BITASARROF", the Lebanese national Library, 2016
  • "MAC International", The MAC's first open arts prize – Shortlisted 2014 – Belfast, Northern Ireland, 2014 – [https://themaclive.com/mac-international-2014}]{{Dead link|date=July 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
  • "Syri-Arts, 101 Works of Art for Syrian Refugee Children in Lebanon", Beirut Exhibition Center, 2013
  • "Tjreed – a selection of Arab Abstract Art, 1908–1960", CAP, Contemporary Art Platform, Kuwait, 2013
  • "Vous avez dit Abstrait" – Exposition collective, Galerie Tanit, Beirut, 2013
  • "Art Dubai, 2013", & "ABU DHABI Art, 2013", Galerie Janine Rubeiz, UAE, 2013
  • Pellicula, Galerie Janine Rubeiz, Beirut, 2013{{cite web |url=http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Culture/Art/2013/Apr-24/214807-on-the-impermanence-of-imagery.ashx#axzz2T5G6yV5q |title=On the impermanence of imagery |last1=Stoughton |first1=India |date=April 24, 2013 |publisher=The Daily Star |access-date=11 May 2013}}

  • Vous avez dit abstrait?, Galerie Tanit, Beirut, 2013{{cite web |url=http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Culture/Art/2013/Apr-13/213569-abstraction-of-a-mystical-bent.ashx#axzz2T5G6yV5q |title=Abstraction of a mystical bent |last1=Lahoud |first1=Cherine |date=April 13, 2013 |publisher=The Daily Star |access-date=11 May 2013}}

  • Subtitled: With Narratives from Lebanon, Royal College of Art, London, 2011
  • [http://www.beirutexhibitioncenter.com/exhibitions/rebirth-lebanon-21st-century-contemporary-art Rebirth, Lebanon 21st Century Contemporary Art, Beirut Exhibition Art Center, Beirut, 2011] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130116015645/http://www.beirutexhibitioncenter.com/exhibitions/rebirth-lebanon-21st-century-contemporary-art |date=2013-01-16 }}
  • Convergence, New Art from Lebanon, The American University Museum, Katzen Arts Center, Washington DC, 2010

References

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