An Article by M.R. (651 words, 3 min. read)
A Gallery That Feels Like the Beach
A collective exhibition succeeds when it creates an experience.
This is precisely what Rania Hammoud achieved with La Mer. While she brought together artists around a common subject, she also transformed Art Scene Gallery into a seaside retreat. Even before visitors begin looking at the works, they are welcomed by deckchairs spread across the terrace, colorful beach toys, balloons, and shades of blue that immediately evoke summer.
The atmosphere is light, relaxed, and inviting.
It feels less like entering a gallery than stepping into a Mediterranean holiday. And we just need that burst of joy!
One Theme, Many Horizons
The sea always occupies a special place in the Lebanese imagination. It is a landscape, a memory, a destination, and often a source of comfort. This collective demonstrates just how many artistic languages can emerge from the same horizon. Some artists celebrate familiar beaches and fishing boats, others focus on light, reflections, or the endless movement of water. Some approach the sea through everyday life while others transform it into a more symbolic space filled with emotion and memory.
Despite this diversity, the selection remains remarkably coherent. The exhibition moves naturally from one visual language to another, allowing each work to breathe.
A Carefully Curated Selection
Every work contributes something different to the conversation, creating a presentation that feels fresh, balanced, and engaging.
Among the paintings that immediately capture attention is Rached Bohsali’s elegant sailing boat. Its refined composition and elegant lines convey the timeless pleasure of navigating open water.
Nearby, Ali Mourabet offers one of his famous interpretations of the Lebanese beach. Seen from above, his simplified bathers, striped umbrellas, and turquoise shoreline transform a familiar summer scene into a joyful composition of color, rhythm, and geometry.
Jamil Molaeb reminds visitors why he remains one of Lebanon’s most celebrated painters of the sea. His unmistakable blues possess remarkable depth and sensitivity. Layer upon layer of brushstrokes dissolve the boundary between sky and water, creating landscapes that seem suspended between observation and memory. His paintings radiate calm while revealing the endless variations hidden within a single color.
Elsewhere, Hassan Jouni’s cafés overlooking the coast, or floating swimmers, boats, surfers, and quiet stretches of water reveal many different relationships with the sea. Together they create a celebration of blue that is intimate and fun.
One False Note
Our only reservation concerns the sculpture by Nicole Sarkis, placed at the entrance of the gallery. Within a presentation built around lightness, movement, and the pleasures of the seaside, its presence feels unexpectedly heavy, disgruntled and disconnected from the rest of the exhibition. Its rough forms and awkward visual language boldly interrupt the harmony that was so carefully constructed throughout the show. One naturally searches for the conceptual thread that might justify such a rupture, yet the dialogue with the surrounding works remains elusive. Whether this tension is intentional or not, the sculpture functions less as an introduction than as a distraction, representing the exhibition’s only real curatorial misstep.
A Breath of Sea Air
La Mer may not have gathered the most accomplished seascapes ever painted by Lebanese artists. Many others did explore the Mediterranean Sea with greater depth, complexity, and emotional intensity. Yet, that is not the ambition of this particular collective. Its success lies elsewhere.
At a time when Lebanon continues to live through difficult days, this atmosphere takes on an added significance. For the duration of a visit, the worries of everyday life quietly recede behind the horizon.
One leaves with memories of blue skies, warm light, familiar beaches, and the timeless pleasure of the Mediterranean.
Offering such a moment of escape is no small achievement. In the end, Rania Hammoud at Art Scene Gallery succeeded in reminding us that art can also comfort, uplift, and simply make us smile. Sometimes, that is exactly what is needed.
