Unwelcome

Unwelcome is the first solo exhibition of the Lebanese artist Charbel Gergess, at Art Scene Gallery in Gemmayzeh, Beirut, from 24 September to 7 October 2026.

The exhibition is a series of paintings of figures seen from behind, facing a wall, in domestic interiors. In his statement Gergess writes: "This exhibition is a collection of paintings of different portraits of different people in different spaces and places." He describes "fleeting moments of unrecognizable characters, undefined, indifferent", each placed "in the middle of a square-shaped space" with "a dead end wall and nothing else." "Non-confrontation is the main feature of these works," he writes. "It's a feeling of discomfort and indifference. It's a quiet escape." The statement opens with a line from Emil Cioran and closes with a dedication to the artist's father.

Writing in Agenda Culturel, Lily Naim reads the series through mourning, flight and introspection. She notes a cold, largely uniform palette and familiar domestic spaces that appear "voilés de mystère", and links the grief in the works, including the death of the artist's father, to a Lebanese context of wars and upheaval.

Charbel Gergess was born in Lebanon in 1995. He holds a bachelor's and a master's degree from the Lebanese University, graduating from the master's programme with distinction. Working between realism and abstraction, he uses painting, photography, installation and video.