An Article by A. V. (610 words, 3 min. read)
In the heart of Gemmayze, within the luminous space of Rebirth Beirut on Gouraud Street, the walls turned into windows—offering us fleeting views into a memory, a mood, a moment suspended in time. Echoes of Summer, the latest solo exhibition by Lebanese contemporary artist Rosy Daniel, is not just an homage to the Mediterranean coast; it is a whispered conversation between land and sea, between the artist and the echoes of her past.
The Tenderness of the Sky
Rosy Daniel is a painter of skies. Not merely of color and cloud, but of emotion—skies that breathe, skies that weep, skies that remember. Her brush captures the intangible: the soft ache of dusk, the gentle hush of early morning light, and the golden shimmer of sun-warmed stones under bare feet. These are not landscapes one sees; they are landscapes one feels.
As the seasons shift from winter to summer, Rosy’s hand follows. “She is truly a master of sunsets and seascapes,” writes curator Dr. Tony Karam, whose poetic vision of this exhibition frames it as “a magnification of seasonal transition, captured with emotion, tenderness, and mastery.” Indeed, the skies in Daniel’s paintings are tender clouds adrift with hope, carrying unspoken longings across pastel horizons.
Portraits of Places and People
Raised in Beirut, Rosy Daniel is deeply rooted in the dualities of her city, where history meets modernity, where permanence wrestles with flux. Her practice navigates these contrasts, flowing effortlessly between portrait and landscape, between the known and the unfamiliar. She paints faces that intrigue her, textures that linger, and atmospheres that hum with invisible stories.
In Echoes of Summer, the sea becomes a recurring character; a mirror of emotion, a keeper of secrets. Her coastlines shimmer with movement and memory. Sailboats drift like thoughts across the canvas. Swimmers glide like fleeting memories. Waves rise and collapse like the pulse of time itself. These are not static scenes; they are living poems in oil and pigment.
A Dance of Color and Soul
The exhibition speaks in the language of color; sunset reds tangled with the foam of retreating waves, sea greens turning translucent like the soul of the artist who renders them. There is lightness, yes, but also depth. There is softness, but not without strength. One feels the artist’s own heart moving across the canvas, illuminating each stroke with warmth, simplicity, and truth.
As one stands before these glowing scenes, it becomes clear that Rosy Daniel is not merely painting what she sees, but what she carries within. These are her summers, her reflections, her nostalgia alchemized into form. She invites us to walk alongside her—through the hush of a painted breeze, into the fire of a remembered sunset.
The Art of Sharing a Soul
What lingers most after leaving Echoes of Summer is not just the beauty of the works, but the beauty of the artist’s spirit. There is generosity in her art, a desire to share not only places and faces, but sensations. Her brush does not demand attention; it offers communion. And just as her paintings illuminate the soul with their tender light, the exhibition itself contributes to a greater cause: a portion of the proceeds will support the illumination of Beirut’s streets, through the ongoing initiative of Rebirth Beirut. In this gesture, the light that shines within her canvases spills outward, into the city she loves, into the nights of Beirut, turning memory into radiance, and art into action.
Rosy Daniel’s Echoes of Summer is on view from May 8 to 16, 2025 at Rebirth Beirut, Gemmayze, Gouraud Street. Curated by Dr. Tony Karam
