Dalia Baassiri

Born in 1981, Dalia Baassiri graduated in 2003 from the Lebanese American University with a bachelor’s degree in graphic design and went on to pursue a master’s degree in Fine Arts at Chelsea College of Art and Design in London, where she also took part in various group shows.

As a multidisciplinary artist, drawing has been a primary tool of expression, alongside painting and photography. Aside from exhibiting at Galerie Janine Rubeiz, where she held her first solo exhibition in 2017 Titled “Wiped off” following her participation in a dual residency in New York State-sponsored by ArteEast, Baassiri’s emerging talent gave her a chance to exhibit her work locally and internationally. She has held a show titled “Vesuvius” in Barcelona and she was selected among the participants to the 12th Arte Laguna Prize for the residency at Espronceda Art Center. Baassiri’s work has been awarded a prize by Fabriano, Maraya and the Lebanese Web Design Awards.

Her work is permanently available at Galerie Janine Rubeiz where, in 2014, she participated in the exhibition “Clin d’oeil” and “Nostalgic Imagery”, an exhibition curated by Baks/Art and her work has been showcased by the gallery at Beirut Art Fair, Art Dubai, Art14 and Abu Dhabi Art Fair.

About her work

"Lines are everywhere but we cannot see them. Like cells, they progressively multiply, expand and intertwine, forming endless possibilities of forms. I perceive the world as a giant spherical drawing room inhabited by beings and elements that are constantly in motion. Their impulses push them from one point to another, creating a series of linear paths. Each being or element has a corresponding destination mapped and documented within this drawing. The wave heads to the shore, the cloud accompanies the wind, the plant reaches for the light and the human chases happiness from one place to another. Accordingly, their existence consists of the sum of their own trajectories, which ultimately shape their fate. In such a context, everything on this planet plays the role of the artist. 

I am currently exploring my experience of the world by highlighting the quotidian and overlooked activities such as window cleaning and floor sweeping allowing them to infiltrate and shape my practice. The process raises questions concerning my approach and understanding of art. Graphite is the primary medium enabling me to manifest my concerns. I consider it as the mediator between art and the familiar. It plays the role of a conventional drawing tool yet enacts the dust and the dirt of everyday life. Its solubility generates a substantial muddy effect that stimulates my engagement with the surface."

One among few young emerging artists in Lebanon concerned with materiality and surface rather than mediation and purely archival objects, Dalia Baassiri is a painter of dimensions - volume, thickness and weight. Her curiosity and need for experimentation are what gives her artistic trajectory a distinctive personality and the attention of everyone who lays eyes on her work.