- Source: Katya Traboulsi
Katya Traboulsi (Arabic: كاتيا طرابلسي, née Assouad; born in 1960) is a Lebanese self-taught multidisciplinary artist whose practice is focused on recent Lebanese history and popular culture. Both her painting and sculptural works are characterized by her use of color, which disrupts the viewer's expectations of the dark subject matter they are confronted with.
Early life
Traboulsi's interest in art was first informed by her grandmother's paintings, which led her to consider pursuing graduate studies in fine arts. She envisioned a path in painting through studies in Paris, after completing her foundational education in Lebanon. However, her father's objections redirected her journey. Instead, she pursued Interior Design at the Lebanon School of Art in 1983.
Following her graduation, Katya Traboulsi embarked on diverse career paths. Her creative journey drove her exploration of art galleries and exhibitions, keenly attuned to the evolving cultural landscape. Katya Traboulsi ran her own printing press, Systeco, where she also worked as a production manager from 1982 till 1988. After organizing a variety of different exhibitions for her painterly works in 1986, Katya married Jean Traboulsi in 1989.
Later that year, in 1989, the newlyweds relocated to Dubai. There, Katya Traboulsi worked at an advertising agency, Publigraphics, from 1990 until 1993. She then taught at the Lycée Georges Pompidou in Dubai for 8 years. In 2000, Katya opened the Katya Traboulsi Ateliers in Dubai and then later in Beirut. It was an institution that helped many emerging young artists progress in their careers. Moving to Dubai opened the cultural sphere to a whole new network of institutions and individuals.
Work
As for Traboulsi's artistic timeline, it can be divided into two defining periods: the authorial expressionist phase of her earlier career, and the later period marked by collaboration, political engagement, and multidisciplinary approaches. These periods interweave in works spanning the mid-2000s to the early 2010s, reflecting the rich tapestry of her artistic evolution.
During her early period, Traboulsi aligned herself with the Figuration Libre movement, an artistic wave that emerged in 1980s France, characterized by the use of bold lines, intricate patterns, and whimsically drawn human figures and environments. These early works were largely acrylic paintings. Katya's work during this period was created as part of her journey of healing and recovery from the tumultuous Lebanese civil war, a transformative period that deeply influenced her artistic expression. Many of her works present complex, and intense, themes that mirror her own interpretation of life during the civil war. Katya Traboulsi continued to produce work in the manner of Figuration Libre in the 2000s and early 2010s, but began to engage in more pressing and political issues which she had previously avoided. Such issues included woman's rights as in Forbidden Words (2006), and the Lebanese civil war in Age of Rage (2012).
The following decade ushered the beginning of Traboulsi's collaborative work, inspired by literature and journalism. Continuing in the aesthetics of Figuration Libre, she painted diverse pieces inspired by essays written in 2011. This was her first attempt at collaborative work within the artistic sphere. Her second was in 2013, when she curated the work of different Photojournalists that were active during the Lebanese civil war in a body of work titled Generation War. Traboulsi documented history in a manner that emphasized these individuals' experiences at the time. They were presented either in texts by the journalists or in speech, during the exhibition. Expressing her collaborative artistic philosophy, and referencing people who had documented and experienced war; she once stated, "I'm telling people's stories, not mine."
With her most recent projects, from the mid-2010s and on, Traboulsi worked in collaboration with artisans to produce works that valorized different national and local artistic traditions. One such project that can be viewed as a landmark in her collaborative work was Perpetual Identities. The project consisted of a series of medium sized missile mortars, handmade either by the artist or artisans commissioned by her. For a time, the project was an ongoing work of art. Traboulsi would make or commission two or three mortars, sell them to collectors, and then earn the money to make more mortars, hence the perpetuity of Perpetual Identities.
The initial inspiration of this project was a gifted mortar shell sleeve from the 1975 Lebanese civil war that she had received for her birthday. Considering how such an object was responsible for death, she created art around it that would idolize and pay tribute to those who fought against an 'enemy'. The idea behind Perpetual Identities was to turn these mortars which were symbols of war, into symbols of peace, and embodiments of identity and diversity. Each of the mortars featured imagery and the utilization of materials from a diversity of 46 symbolic cultures, hence the importance of identity in Perpetual Identities. This is unsurprising considering that in a 2023 interview about Perpetual Identities, Traboulsi talked about how much she valued diversity.
Katya Traboulsi's work cannot be pinned down to one technique, style, or subject matter. She has made use of different kinds of materials from acrylics to light-boxes, brass and resin, and iron. Traboulsi has produced work that is in line with different currents of expressionism, conceptual art, and pop art, respectively. She has tackled an array of themes ranging from celebrity to music, to ethno-national identity, anatomy, freedom, and war. Her most recent exhibition at Saleh Barakat Gallery in Beirut, Rej3a Ya Mama (2022), largely consisted of ironworks inspired by Lebanese pick-up trucks. She showcases the vivid designs typical of Lebanese trucks, employing bold hues and cultural symbols. Her iron creations honor Tripoli, merging abstract motifs, like florals and birds, with traditional calligraphy, conveying cultural values.
Beyond her art, Katya Traboulsi's enduring legacy extends to cultural enrichment through collaboration, commissioning, and institutional support. A dedicated advocate of artistic expression, equality, and diversity, she does everything with a "scream of peace", as she likes to say. In 2016, Katya returned to her roots in Beirut, where she currently resides and continues to contribute to the vibrant tapestry of the art world.
