Mansour El Habre is a Lebanese painter and printmaker living in Beirut. His works explore the approach between reality and the perception of reality, deconstructing the metaphysical world around him,...
Mansour El Habre is a Lebanese painter and printmaker living in Beirut. His works explore the approach between reality and the perception of reality, deconstructing the metaphysical world around him, fragmenting and reconstructing images at the verge of psychosis and surrealism. These two mixed media works are snapshots of an artist’s studio during isolation in quarantine. Collectively marked by intensely energetic compositions, they demonstrate disparate steps in the creative process, including color experimentation, sketches in pencil and pastel, and experiments in shading forms. However the final work is not a finished image in the traditional sense, but rather the focus is on the process of creating. Reflecting on the pandemic, which itself seems static and unending, El Habre’s project explores the rich, often overlooked in-between phase between initial ideas and finalized artwork.
El Habre received a BA in Fine Arts from the Institute of Fine Arts at the Lebanese University, Beirut (1994) before pursuing a MA from Balamand University. As an artist living and working in Beirut, he teaches at the Academie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts. He has exhibited widely in the Middle East, Europe, and North America, including the Europ’Art Fair, Geneva (1999); The Artist’s View II, Cork Street Galleries, London (2004); and Art-Dubai Art Fair (2009, 2010 & 2011) and Abu Dhabi Art Fair (2010). In 2010, he participated in the exhibition Convergence - New Art from Lebanon at the Katzen Art Center at American University, Washington, D.C. His work can be found in private and public collections including Audi Bank, Beirut; Solidere Headquarters, Beirut and the Cité Social, Fameck, France.
His works explore the approach between reality and the perception of reality, deconstructing the metaphysical world around him, fragmenting and reconstructing images at the verge of psychosis and surrealism.