Paintings 23-24-25, Bassam Kahwagi

Practice and Approach

Bassam Kahwagi is a painter who consistently challenges the limits of painting. Rebellious by nature, his practice explores instinct, structure, and experimentation. This exhibition, his first solo show in five years, uses the grid as a framework, the line as a driving force, and colour as a tool for visual discovery.

Kahwagi absorbs the world and releases it in transformed form. He removes recognisable references in search of a different order. His work exists between instinct and observation, shaped by discipline and method.

Process and Abstraction

Drawing lies at the core of Kahwagi’s process. He builds an extensive archive of trials and gestures through methodical sessions. These drawings guide the work, not as images, but as memories of movement and concentration.

His paintings are layered and optical. They resist reference to the visible world. Although abstract, they assert “thingness,” forms that exist before or beyond the object.

Visual Language

What remains of Kahwagi’s process are essential lines, colours, and forms. Together they form a language that resists easy classification. His work challenges how we see, interpret, and understand the world, both on and off the canvas.

Biography

Born in Beirut in 1963, Kahwagi studied painting and sculpture in Paris between 1982 and 1986, notably at Atelier Nicolas Poussin with Maurice Guillon. From 1990 to 1993, he trained in etching and lithography. He held solo exhibitions in Paris and Lebanon between 1987 and 1994, then paused public exhibitions.

In 2020, he returned with a solo show at Agial Art Gallery in Beirut. Since 2021, he has served as instructor and artist in residence in the Studio Art program at the American University of Beirut. He is a founding and board member of the Beirut Art Center and was elected President of its Executive Board in 2024.