A Walk in the Middle East

Kalim Bechara Art Gallery in Downtown Beirut will show A Walk in the Middle East from 12 to 24 November 2026. The solo exhibition brings together paintings by the Lebanese-Armenian artist Mireille Goguikian. It opens on Thursday 12 November, from 6pm to 8pm. The gallery's catalogue lists 20 paintings dated 2023 to 2026, 14 in oil on canvas and six in oil on jute. Most show a city of the region, its buildings packed into tight grids of bright colour.

The artist describes Beirut, her home, as the emotional heart of the show and the point where the journey starts. Eternal Beirut and Dubai - Oasis of Lights, both oils on jute of 100 by 150 centimetres, are the largest of the 2026 works. Other titles name Jerusalem, Kuwait, Doha and Istanbul. Jerusalem I and Jerusalem II, both from 2025 and 70 centimetres square, set a dome among pale yellow and cream buildings. Saifi Village, a long canvas of 40 by 140 centimetres, lines up low houses with purple roofs and palm trees before taller blocks.

The show also has smaller pieces. Kuwait measures 30 centimetres square, while Al Kuds I and Al Kuds II are 35 centimetres square. Echos of Sandstones is a set of six canvases of 45 by 35 centimetres, painted as horizontal bands of colour dotted with small houses. The oldest and largest painting is The Rising Kingdom (2023), an oil on canvas of 150 by 200 centimetres. In her catalogue statement Goguikian writes that she paints while conflict weighs on the region, and calls painting "an act of tenderness".

Goguikian was born in Beirut in 1964 and finished her studies in 1988 at ALBA, the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts. After a stay in Italy in 1990, she lived in Paris until 1995. Her series Éclats de Beyrouth, painted after the port explosion of August 2020, won the Jury Prize at the XIII Florence Biennale in 2021. The Modern Art Museum of Yerevan gave her a retrospective in 2023, covering 35 years of work. She last showed with the gallery in April 2024. The gallery is in the Noor Gardens 1 building on Omar Daouk Street, and opens Monday to Friday from 11am to 7pm and Saturday from 10am to 2pm.