Envol, Youssef Aoun

Youssef Aoun (b. 1965)

Youssef Aoun’s multi-dimensional practice combines abstraction with natural and mineral materials. Working with acrylic, sand, and marble powder, he builds dense surfaces of line, colour, and form. He describes his work as a “mysterious spiritual and sensual universe,” born of an inner migration. Drawing and painting, he says, is like the movement of migratory birds, guided without the need to see a destination.

At first glance, Aoun’s large-scale canvases appear driven by extremity and contrast, particularly between black and white. For the artist, however, these tonal oppositions do not signify darkness or light. Instead, they generate tension and drama. This effect produces a flattened chiaroscuro, where affect emerges through tone, texture, and layered materiality. The resulting surfaces evoke grit, hardness, and crystalline intensity, balanced by careful composition.

Born in Kfarwe, South Lebanon, Aoun lives and works in Beirut. He earned a Higher Degree from the Lebanese University’s Faculty of Fine Arts in 1989. He later completed an MFA in Painting and Printmaking at ALBA in 2005. Aoun has taught at the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts since 1990 and previously taught at the Lebanese American University.

Aoun has held numerous solo exhibitions in Lebanon, Kuwait, France, Italy, and South Korea. He has also participated in major group exhibitions across the region and Europe. His awards include the Jury Prize at the Sharjah Biennial (1995) and the Dorothy Salhab Kazemi Prize at the Sursock Museum (1991 and 1995). His works are held in major public and private collections, including the Sursock Museum, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the National Museum of Qatar, and the Ministry of Culture, Lebanon.