Geometry of Belonging

Art Scene Gallery in Gemmayzeh, Beirut, will present Geometry of Belonging, a solo exhibition of paintings by Ali Mourabet, from 5 to 17 November 2026. The opening takes place on Wednesday 4 November, from 6pm to 9pm. Mourabet was born in Damascus in 1951 and has spent most of his life in Beirut. He has practised as an architect since 1976 and has painted professionally since 1977. In this show he reduces houses and landscapes to colour and simple geometric forms.

The gallery presents the exhibition as a return to memory after a long career in architecture. According to the gallery, the paintings carry Mourabet's longing for buildings he designed in the past and a lasting sense of home. The work chosen for the exhibition poster shows two tall block buildings, one cream and one near black, set against a red sky. Diagonal bands of light and deep blue, turquoise, orange, ochre and grey cut across the rest of the picture.

Buildings and the city run through his wider work. He paints streets of houses with multicoloured façades, balconies and shutters, the buildings of the American University of Beirut and Battersea Power Station in London. Other paintings look down from above on sunbathers under beach umbrellas or on office workers crossing a street. His listed paintings are in oil or acrylic on canvas, among them Gemayzeh stairs (2023) and Ain El Mrayseh (2025).

Between 1978 and 1980 Mourabet worked in Abu Dhabi as a caricaturist, drawing for one daily paper and two weekly magazines. His earlier solo exhibitions include shows at the AUB Alumni Club in Beirut in 1991 and 1992, and at Galerie Shammas in Paris in 1993. In 2024 he showed alone at Portico Gallery in Kent. Art Scene Gallery is in the Pigier Building on Gouraud Street.