The Dalloul Artist Collective (DAC) proudly inaugurates its curatorial program with a solo exhibition by the renowned Lebanese artist Fawzi Baalbaki, titled The Escape to Joy. Held within the architecturally acclaimed Stone Gardens building, designed by award-winning Lebanese architect Lina Ghotmeh, the exhibition unfolds in a space that echoes DAC’s commitment to longevity, care, and purposeful cultural support. The building’s iconic hand-combed concrete façade, a signature of Ghotmeh’s design, evokes the weathered memory of Beirut’s urban skin, grounding DAC’s mission in a material language of history and renewal.
Within this context, The Escape to Joy presents a selection of Baalbaki’s recent paintings – expressive, dynamic, and deeply human works that offer a visual vocabulary rooted in personal memory, political struggle, and the enduring pursuit of light. Featuring approximately 55 works, the exhibition is installed against the raw concrete backdrop of DAC’s walls. The artworks brim with luminous colors, interwoven figures, and bold, calligraphic lines that evoke both sculptural form and emotional immediacy. While the compositions may appear playful or abstract at first glance, they are laced with symbolic weight, referencing decades of war, displacement, resistance, and resilience.
This exhibition is deeply personal. Now in his 80s, Baalbaki revisits a visual language he began to cultivate in Paris in the 1980s, where he first broke away from realism and began experimenting with expressive line, stylized figuration, and structured composition. His latest works, many of which were completed with the support of his sons, artists Ayman and Said Baalbaki, glow with color and clarity. Curated by Ayman and Said, the exhibition offers an intimate perspective on their father’s evolving practice. Its layered meanings reflect his lifelong negotiation between political ideology and personal expression. All works on view are available for acquisition.
A filmed interview conducted by artist Serwan Baran, who has shared fifteen years of dialogue with Baalbaki, will be screened throughout the exhibition. In this intimate conversation, the artist reflects on childhood memories, artistic influences such as Rafic Charaf, Jawad Salim, and Shaker Hassan Al-Saeed, and the evolution of his style in relation to Arabic calligraphy, sculpture, and contemporary expression. Speaking on the emotional terrain of his work, Baalbaki shares:
“In most of my work, I’m running toward joy, trying to escape from within because I can no longer bear to look directly at tragedy and ruin. So, I hint at it in my paintings, but I don’t dwell there… My paintings are ultimately about the human experience.”
In addition, a short film facilitated by Baalbaki’s grandson, Ali Baalbaki, will be on view – an intimate, intergenerational contribution that further deepens the exhibition’s narrative of memory and creative continuity.
Complementing the main exhibition is a focused retrospective offering a historical lens into the foundations of Fawzi Baalbaki’s practice. This selection of archival material includes early paintings, preparatory sketches, a few sculpted busts of the artist created by close friends, as well as portraits by his brother Abdelhamid Baalbaki and artist Serwan Baran. These works shed light on the artistic, political, and personal threads that have shaped his practice over the decades, offering context for the visual language and emotional force seen in The Escape to Joy.
As part of DAC’s mission to amplify the voices of Arab artists through dialogue, documentation, and exhibition, The Escape to Joy signals a commitment to honoring artistic legacy while forging new pathways for intergenerational creativity.
Press release from Dalloul Artist Collective (DAC)
Image: Installation view of The Escape to Joy, Dalloul Artist Collective (DAC), 2025. Image courtesy of the Dalloul Artist Collective (DAC), Beirut
