Hanibal Srouji was born in Lebanon, where he is now based, after many years in Paris and Montreal, where he obtained his Master of Fine Arts from Concordia University.

Srouji’s art deals with his nostalgia for Lebanon and the impossibility of coming back to his home country, as he emigrated at the beginning of the civil war. During the immediate post-war period, he produced abstract works where he confronted the realities of post-conflict Lebanon to his own happy childhood there. He then abandoned lyrical abstraction to create works where he perforates and burns the canvas, in a sublimation of violence that doubles as a call for preserving collective memory and celebrating life. When he includes flowers in his paintings, these too constitute a celebration of freedom, their fragile petals symbolizing the fleeting character of life.

Srouji has participated in collective exhibitions in Canada, France, Japan and the United States, as well as international art fairs such as Art Dubai (2009, 2010) and ArtParis (Abu Dhabi, 2007). His personal exhibitions have taken place in Beirut, Paris, Basel, Marseilles, Tokyo, Nimes, Montreal and New York.

Srouji currently teaches at the Lebanese American University. He has also taught art in the United States, Canada and France (Concordia University, Maryland University and the Sorbonne). He has been awarded numerous scholarships and prizes, including the French government’s Médaille d’Argent des Arts in 1997.