Gilbert Halaby

Gilbert Halaby is a Lebanese painter, born in 1979, who grew up in Dhour El Choueir in Mount Lebanon and has lived in Rome since 2003. He paints in oil on canvas, often at large scale: landscapes of pine trees, cliffs and solitary houses in strong primary colour.

His subject is the landscape of his childhood, painted from memory. The pine tree, which he associates with both Mount Lebanon and the Roman skyline, runs through recent work such as SANINE (2025), a canvas five metres high, and To a Vast (2025). He studied archaeology at the Lebanese University in Beirut and is self-taught as a painter. In Rome he also runs Maison Halaby, a jewellery and accessories atelier on Via di Monserrato that grew from a shop he opened in 2003.

Halaby first showed his paintings in Domus Berytus at Beit Beirut in 2023, followed the same year by Une Comédie Romaine at Maja Arte Contemporanea, Rome. Solo shows followed at Artbooth Gallery, Abu Dhabi, and Casa Branca in 2024. In 2026 Echoes of Existence, initiated by the Embassy of Italy in Lebanon at the Nuhad Es-Said Pavilion for Culture, Beirut, showed his paintings with those of Enzo Cucchi and Lebanese modern painters.