Maktoob Contemporary Calligraphy Exhibition

A contemporary calligraphy exhibition by Everitte Barbee, Joumana Medlej and Ziad Talhouk entitled Maktoob will take flight, revealing the talents and beauty that is literally hidden in between the lines, showcasing the artists’ talents.

For those of you who are less familiar with the artists, Everitte Barbee is an American artist who uses the Diwani Jali script in his work to create complex illustrations providing a contemporary twist on this traditional art form. Barbee began studying Islamic calligraphy while living in Damascus in 2009. Working as an artist, he moved to Lebanon last year after graduating with a Scottish Masters in International Business and Arabic from the University of Edinbutgh. His work aims to celebrate the rich cultural heritage of the Middle East.

As for Joumana Medlej, her body of work encompasses graphic design, illustration, comic books, digital games and children’s literature. Medlej learned the essence of the Kufi script at the knee of the master calligrapher Samir Sayegh. His influence can be felt in her own calligraphy, underlying her personal feeling-based approach: the sense of a unique relationship between the Arabic script and geometry, making the work less about personal creation and more about uncovering hidden patterns.

Finally, the third artist being Ziad Talhouk, obtained a B.A. in International Affairs at the Beirut University College (nowadays known as LAU) where he then worked as reporter and desk editor at several foreign news agencies from 1989 to 2010. After Talhouk quit journalism in 2010, his long-neglected hobby of calligraphy and mandalas became a full-time occupation. Fascinated by the endless possibilities that the Arabic letters and words bear, his work is nevertheless not based on traditional schools of calligraphy but rather on the repetition, combination and sometimes manipulation, of a single Arabic word that eventually makes up a form or pattern.

Please note that the opening of the exhibition will be at 3:00 pm