Zena Assi

Born in Lebanon, in 1974, Zena Assi lives and works in London. She graduated with honors from l’Académie Libanaise des Beaux Arts (ALBA), worked in advertising and taught in different universities. Her contemporary work draws inspiration from the relations and conflicts between the individual and his spatial environment, society and its surroundings.

The artist uses various supports and mediums to document and explore the cultural and social changes. Her work takes shape in installation, drawing, etching, experimental animation, sculpture, ceramics and mainly painting. Themes that are central to her vision include present-day issues, like migration and the relation between memories and people on the move. 

Many of her pieces are part of various public as well as private collections (Académie Libanaise des beaux Arts in Beirut, Barjeel Art Foundation in Sharjah and Institut du Monde Arabe Museum in Paris). Assi has exhibited in solo as well as collective shows across Europe, the Middle East and the United States of America including- Subtitled Apeal Royal College of Art (London, UK), Artsawa gallery (Dubai, UAE), Zoom Art Fair (Miami USA), Espace Claude Lemand (Paris, France), Cairo Biennale (Cairo, Egypt), Katzen Arts Center of American University (Washington D.C., USA), Rebirth Beirut Exhibition Center (Beirut, Lebanon), CAP Contemporary Art Platform Gallery Space (Kuwait), IWM Imperial War Museum (London, UK), IMA Institut du Monde Arabe Museum (Paris, France) and the 57th Venice Art Biennale (Venice, Italy).