Haibat Balaa Bawab

Haibat Balaa Bawab was born in 1952 in Beirut, where she was raised. She makes collages on cardboard and canvas from cut fragments of magazines, stamps and bills, and paints in oil.

Her subject is Beirut and its people: cityscapes, village life, harvests and the interiors of different social classes, from bourgeois homes set with carpets and tapestries to the floral patterns associated with peasants, refugees and beggars. Recurring motifs include rugs and oriental textiles, and the cut-outs act as markers of identity and status. Works such as Bathers III (2004), Candles in the Wind (2009) and Debutante (2017) show the range, and the Cutouts series was shown at Espace S.D. in Beirut in 2006.

She received a BA in Fine Arts from Beirut University College, now the Lebanese American University, in 1975, and taught there for seventeen years. From 2001 to 2022 she was Fine Arts Coordinator at the American University of Science and Technology. She won first prize for painting at the Makhoul Street exhibition in 1979 and 1980. Art on 56th has held her solo exhibitions Interpretations (2014), Local Inspirations (2023) and Timeless Traditions (2025).