Ghylan Safadi

Born in 1977, contemporary artist Ghylan Safadi is a graduate of the Faculty of Fine Arts at Damascus University. His works focus on cartoon imagery to produce sketch-like social vignettes. The compositions are teeming with diverse figures, each playing a role in narrating these disquieting scenes. Whether the pictures touch upon social, political, environmental, or even personal issues, they each tell a story and unveil an uneasy truth about the troubled climate of today’s world. Safadi’s works skillfully emanate a certain irony, as the childlike representations come into contrast with the obscure and mature themes.

His works have been shown in several solo exhibitions in his hometown and in Beirut, Lebanon. He has also participated in numerous collective exhibitions, both locally and internationally, in London, Paris, Berlin, Washington, Kuwait, Dubai, Bahrain, and Tokyo, including the Royal Center in London and the Arab World Institute (IMA) in Paris. His works are housed in private collections that span across Damascus, Beirut, Paris, London, Dubai, and the United States.