Sara Abalan was born in 1956 in Beverly, Massachusetts. In the mid-70’s Sara studied briefly at Paier College of Art before launching into a fifteen year career as an art director as well as an illustrator of the covers for the original COOK’s Magazine, other publications and cookbooks. In 1994, after taking an intensive drawing workshop with British artist and teacher Hugh O’Donnell in Bantam, Connecticut, she moved to New York to study drawing and painting at the New York Studio School for four years. Since that time she has remained in New York City painting and showing her work.

Lamia Abillama In 2005 Lamia gave up a successful career as a corporate lawyer in Paris to pursue her real passion: photography. After graduating in 2006 from the International Center for Photography in New York, Lamia was commissioned by New York Magazine as well as Fortune Magazine to photograph magazine editor Tina Brown, and New York’s six most notable real estate families. Her main interest is social photography. In 2007, Lamia exhibited in Italy her series entitled ‘Society Ladies of Rio de Janeiro’. She is currently working on a series of portraits of Lebanese politicians, exploring the effect war had on them. She also received an ‘honorable mention’ at the New York Festival Awards 2008 personal/fine arts pro series.

Ziad Abillama “Works and lives in Lebanon, a country rapidly disappearing like Venice under the waters of prejudice and ignorance. Ziad was reborn in the U.S. during the first Gulf War in 1991. His early work consisting of installations and interventions may be considered as a relentless unlearning of his privileges. Deceived by the over-politicization of Lebanese youth, he shrunk back from politics in art and returned to sculpture and design”.

Reem Acra is one of the leading names in the luxury bridal and eveningwear market. Celebrities such Angelina Jolie as well as brides turn to her for that special moment, be it a walk down the aisle or the red carpet. Reem’s gowns are a direct reflection of her design philosophy that poetically combines her appreciation for the traditional and classic with the modern fashion needs of today’s stylish woman.

Rola Ali Ahmad a US certified gemologist, designs a unique line of jewelry using simplicity and creativity. She studied at the Gemology Institute of America in Santa Monica, merging advertising with jewelry design. In the fall of 1999, the line Rola AA was launched with great success, where the designer opted for a daring approach to detail, putting a good deal of emphasis on stone faceting. Rola believes in allowing the material she works with, be it stone or metal, to tell a story. Each component has a role in fulfilling the final puzzle she vigilantly crafts. In the end, these elements deliver an acute form of symbolism, simply bounded by inspiration.

Rima Amyuni After studying Fine Arts at London’s Byam Shaw School of Art, Rima Amyuni attended Columbia University in New York, graduating with a diploma in Applied Arts in 1979. First prize recipient at Beirut’s Sursock Museum’s “Salon d’Automne” in 1995, Rima has also been teaching arts for over twenty-five years at the Beirut University College (BUC), at the ‘Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts’ (ALBA), and at the American University in Beirut (AUB). She has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions, mostly in Lebanon, but also in Kuwait, London and New York.

Audrée Anid has been studying visual arts for nine years at Fieldston School and in private studios in New York and Paris. Her favorite medium is oils of bright hues.

Sara's Bag is a small boutique in Beirut that sells handmade bags, wallets, shawls, and other accessories. The concept behind Sarah's Bag is to engage Lebanese women who are at risk of economic deprivation or the stigma of having served time in prison. The goal is to give them a role in the production process in return for a reliable income, and a stable source of pride, dignity and empowerment.

Ananchar Basbous is a Lebanese Sculptor.

Paolo Bongia is a Lebanese jewelry designer.

Franck Christen "Classic, out of fashion, Christen does not run after chimeras, doesn't listen to sirens, but remains faithful to his vision of things and composes images that enhance his purpose. His treatment of the portrait is without the slightest device, in the simplicity of natural light and settings."
He lives and works in Brussels and Paris.

Clara Gebran “My new exhibit of photographs entitled ‘Rust and Lace’, revives the train system in Lebanon, which first opened in 1895 and shut down in 1975 with the onset of the civil war. I photographed the urban decay of Lebanon abandoned old train stations .The pictures were taken mostly at close range and in sharp details with compositions full of varied textures. My prints represent a contemporary aesthetic float between the realms of abstraction and realism, often uncovering places marked by nostalgia, isolation and picturesque corrosion.”

Khalil Joreige and Joana Hadjithomas have worked together as artists as well as filmmakers, shooting fiction films and documentaries. Their work has been shown in galleries as well as art institutions. They include, this last year, Modern Art Oxford, Frankfurter Kunsteverein (Germany), De Appel (Amsterdam), Charlottenborg (Copenhague). Galerie In situ (Paris)… They are also lecturers and authors of different publications among which: Beyrouth: Fictions urbaines, OK I'm going to show you my work, A state of Latency, Latency, Like oasis in the desert, The battle of the hotels...

Rabih Kairouz began his career in fashion in Paris. In 1990, he joined “L’Ecole de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne,” and three years later he sent his designs down the famed catwalk of the “Carrousel du Louvre,” as part of the “Concours Internationale des Jeunes Créateurs”. When he graduated in 1994, Kairouz joined Christian Dior’s Haute Couture atelier, and later Chanel. In 1997 he returned to Beirut. That same year, Kairouz’s first wedding gowns came together in his atelier. In 2004, he founded “Maison Rabih Kairouz”. The house symbolizes his style, which is both in tune with the present and in touch with a nostalgic past and a promising future.

Marya Kazoun has produced a large body of work from Installations, performances to drawings and video. She works diligently on her artistic visions striving to consistently venture on new grounds. Marya’s work has been shown in numerous exhibitions around the world among which, the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts (Moscow), the Museum of Modern Art of Klagenfurt (Austria). Her work was also shown at the 51st Venice Biennale (2005) with a solo show ‘Personal Living Space’ and at the Sharjah Biennial 8 (2007) with ‘Crumbling Desert Castles’. She has been invited to show her recent piece at the World Economic Forum in Davos 2008.

Amale Freiha Khlat Born in Beirut, Amale graduated with the highest distinction from the Penninghen, Ecole Superieure d’Art Graphiques in Paris, in 1995. She has exhibited solo at the Galerie Rochane in Beirut, in 1997, and at the Life Centre in London, in 2003. Her collective exhibitions took her work to Paris in 1994 at the Carrousel du Louvre, and then to Beirut in 1995, 1997 and 1998 and then London at Heatherley in 2000 and 2001, the Royal College of Art in 2002 and the Cork Street Gallery in 2004.

Rania Matar’s work focuses on women and children in Lebanon. It has been published and exhibited widely, and won several awards most recently: an artist grant from Massachusetts Cultural Council, first prize in New England Photographers Biennial and first prize in Women in Photography International. Rania is currently a finalist for the James and Audrey Foster Award at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, Boston where she will be exhibiting her work in the fall of 2008. Her images are included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Portland Art Museum, DeCordova Museum, Danforth Museum of Art, Kresge Art Museum. A monograph of her work “Ordinary Lives” with an introduction by Washington Post journalist Anthony Shadid is being published and due to come out in the spring of 2009.

Roger Moukarzel began his career when he was very young; he worked as a photojournalist for Sygma for several years and later on with Reuters. His work has been published in international magazines such as 'ELLE magazine', and for the 40th anniversary of 'Paris Match', his picture was on the cover where he was selected as one of the 4 best photographers. For more than 20 years, he focused on portraits, fashion, advertising, architecture and interior design and has received numerous awards. He has traveled and worked extensively throughout Europe and the Middle East.

Romanos Moukarzel studied in Italy the classical techniques of drawing and painting. His first solo exhibition was at Christies London. Since he has worked on numerous portrait commissions and exhibitions and has devoted the last two years painting landscapes which culminated in a show at Rafael Valls in 2006. Romanos is now working on a series of paintings titled “no man’s land” which explores both his personal and his subject’s experiences of alienation and displacement.

Milia M. It was in Paris that Milia studied fashion design and launched her first collection. Well trained in the skills of her trade and having worked at Vanity Fair Corp. Europe in France as lingerie designer, she went back to Beirut to set up her own studio and showroom. Since 1999, she produces two collections per year that are distributed all around the world. All the collections she has launched so far have all been sober and joyful. They perfectly represent her spirit - fresh, bubbly, dynamic, romantic, modern, and they also carry a scent of oriental mystery.

Nabil Nahas spent his first ten years in Cairo and then settled in Lebanon. At the time, he was deeply influenced by both European modernism and Islamic art. He moved to the United States and received an MFA at Yale in 1971. Nabil’s work often explores the emergence of order from disorder through patterns, fractals, and labyrinths. He mixes substances such as pumice, volcanic rock, and powder with paint to create textures that, once laid out on large-scale canvases, mirror what he refers to as "the geometry of nature." His paintings examine the reiteration of a single organic form through color, contrast, and abstraction. He has exhibited throughout the United States and Europe.

Walid Raad is an award winning media artist whose works to date include video, photography and literary essays. The Atlas Group, the fictional entity through which Walid operates, is an on-going project devoted to researching and documenting the contemporary history of Lebanon. This documentation is organized into archives that are situated between the false binary of fiction and non-fiction; some of the archived documents are real and others invented.

Joanna Rizk Born in 1969, Joanna studied art at Parsons School of Design. She has shown her work inside and outside Lebanon, taking part in several group shows, in Europe and in the Arab countries (the latest being Art Paris Abu Dhabi in november 2007). She has also had personal exhibitions at the Janine Rubeiz Gallery, in Beirut. At the crossroads between the abstract and the figurative, Joanna explores the theme of the fragmented city and broken architecture as new urban signs, through a mixed-media technique based for the most part on collage. She lives and works between Paris and Beirut.

Elie Saab achieved his star status in 2002 when Halle Berry wore an Elie Saab gown to the Oscars and won best actress award. Saab’s designs have become a favorite amongst other A-list celebrities including Christina Aguilera, Beyonce, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Elizabeth Hurley, Marcia Cross, Emmanuelle Beart, and Teri Hatcher. He is also the couturier of royals such as the stylish Queen Rania of Jordan. Saab’s breakthrough moment came in July of 2003 when he showed his Haute Couture collection in Paris as an officially invited member of the prestigious Chambre Syndicale. The response from the press and retailers was overwhelming. His main workshop is in Lebanon, a country to which he remains deeply attached.

Marwan Sahmarani was born in Lebanon in 1970. With an archetypal biography specific to his generation, he left his birth city Beirut in 1989, and moved to Paris to study at l’École Supérieur d’Art Graphique. He now lives and works in Montreal. After a seven year hiatus from the art world, as of 2002 he held several group and solo exhibitions in Beirut, Dubai, Montreal, New York, Mexico and Ireland. Sahmarani’s artwork is linked to his Middle Eastern origins. His oil paintings, drawings, ceramics and performative work are a reflection upon the mediums themselves and their support in the face of sociopolitical problems.

Gaby Salamoun is a Lebanese jewelry designer.

Lucien Samaha is an international photographer and DJ living in New York City. Samaha has exhibited worldwide in galleries, museums and alternative spaces. He is also the US co-director of the Arab Image Foundation, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to collecting, preserving and disseminating photographic heritage from the Arab World.

Ranya Sarakbi is a self taught artist, she graduated from the American University of Beirut with a degree in Sociology. She has exhibited her paintings in galleries and museums, and has works on permanent display at the Lebanese National museum of Beirut. She recently collaborated with Selim Mouzannar, one of Lebanon's leading jewellers, and has launched "Flora", her first collection as a jewelry designer. Her inspiration for this work comes from the cycle of life and the beauty in the death of nature. She currently lives and works in Beirut.

Samir Tabet Painter, former Vice-President of the American University of Beirut.

Katya Traboulsi is a self-taught artist with a rich and exciting style to her larger than life paintings. She has exhibited throughout the UAE and Lebanon. Her paintings have been commissioned for prestigious project around the region, including the Shangri-la Hotel Dubai. Katya’s work is instantly recognizable by her strong animated colors and swirling brush strokes.

Nada Zeineh architect/jewelry designer. “A piece of jewelry is like an architectural project; it deals with a dream, with technical constraints, human body constraints, weight, comfort. It all started because I love working with my hands; it is a totally lonely process that involves very little means, and has immediate result....while an architectural project is a long process involving a large team, a lot of problems and little freedom.”

Lamia Ziade made a name for herself designing fabrics for Jean-Paul Gaultier and Issey Miyake. With many children books to her name, she went on to publish 'L'Utilisation Maximum de la Douceur', a book dedicated to sexual exploration and erotic self discovery. Lamia offers us a chance to re-explore the nature of desire, with a touch of humor and taste of obsession.
Her most recent work is far away from that theme, it's about war in Lebanon in 75-76 and its analogy with the events that are taking place in Lebanon today.