Unique is the best word to describe the work of Lebanese artist Fadi Balhawan (1966). The Liberum proudly announces that his new art segment: Fadi’s Art, is now live. Watch the first three ‘behind-the-scene’ videos and judge for yourself.

By Arthur Blok
His art can only truly be understood when seeing it yourself. Describing his work is challenging, but let’s give it a shot.

Balhawan is a true master in combining literature, calligraphy, ink and pens, painting, poems, and even video. It would be challenging indeed to find an artist with comparable work.

The most similar art would be the work of the late French-born Polish painter Roman Opalka (using mainly numbers) or maybe Idris Khan, who uses many cultural sources like literature, history, art, and music to create layered imagery. But it is still different from the work of Balhawan.

That is what makes his work so unique.

The Lebanese artist transcribes well-known books in Arab literature or spiritual writings on paper or canvas. He artistically recreates text in lines that run in various directions in a magnificently artistic manner.

There are various possible interpretations of the text, which is written in different forms, patterns, and figures. All combined well, creating shapes that strengthen each other in their meaning - using his own words: from zero to infinity.

Fadi’s Art is now live with the first three episodes, short films, where he gives a peak behind the scenes:

- Episode 01 | My Story in Art

- Episode 02 |Let’s make Lebanon a country full of culture again

- Episode 03 | The Merchant of Venice

Watch the videos and judge for yourself. Every week, a new episode will be uploaded as of this date.

We hope you enjoy it.