Helen Zughaib: Painting our collective consciousness

It is said that artists represent the consciousness of people. If so, then artist Helen Zughaib has accomplished this in her recent exposition: “Fractured Spring,” which, in part, examines the aftermath of the Arab Spring, and the desperate depression that followed the initial euphoria.

Zughaib’s latest work consists of paintings, many of them diptychs, or multiple pieces, “fractured” in some way, as a statement of her concern with the consequences of the events across the Arab world, following the Arab Spring.

Born in Beirut to a Lebanese father and American mother, Zughaib lived mostly in the Middle East and Europe before coming to the United States to study art. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Syracuse University, College of Visual and Performing Arts in 1981.

US Presidents Barack Obama and former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have presented her paintings to visiting heads of state. Her paintings have hung in the White House, World Bank, Library of Congress, and the American Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq.

Zughaib’s work has been widely exhibited around the world.

Her best-known series of paintings are her visual interpretations of her father’s stories, “Dreams of My Father,” when he lived in the Levant as a child. They reflect the family’s profound cultural ties to the Middle East, recreated through memories and sensations of her birthplace into vivid compositions of delicate figures and detailed narratives.

Original article by Barbara G.B. Ferguson

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Helen Zughaib: Painting our collective consciousness