Tagreed Darghouth Lebanese, b. 1979
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Biography
Tagreed Darghouth is a Lebanese painter whose practice engages pressing social and political realities through a sustained and research-driven visual language. Her work reflects on structural forms of violence, contested identities and the shifting socio-cultural landscapes of Lebanon and the broader Middle East, often bringing into view how everyday experience intersects with histories of conflict, displacement and power. Across her practice, Darghouth connects lived realities with wider intellectual, cultural and historical reference points, articulating a rich, multifaceted engagement with contemporary life.
Born in Saida, Lebanon, in 1979, Darghouth completed diplomas in Painting and Art Education at the Lebanese University and the Lebanese Teachers Institution in 2000. That same year and the next, she participated in the Ayloul Summer Academy for young Arab artists at Darat al-Funun in Amman, led by the Syrian modernist Marwan Kassab Bashi, a formative influence on her early development. In 2002, she moved to Paris to study Space Art at the École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs, returning to Lebanon in 2003 and balancing teaching with studio practice until dedicating herself full-time to painting.
Darghouth’s work has been exhibited widely both regionally and internationally, in institutional and gallery contexts spanning the Middle East, Europe and North America. She has participated in major group presentations at the Institut du Monde Arabe (Paris), the Royal College of Art (London), Taymour Grahne Gallery (New York), and exhibitions in Buenos Aires, Istanbul, Dubai, Doha and beyond; her solo exhibitions have been held at institutions including Tabari Artspace (Dubai), Saleh Barakat Gallery (Beirut) and Contemporary Art Platform (Kuwait).
Darghouth has also been recognised with multiple awards, including the first prize at the cm3 competition at the Cité internationale Universitaire de Paris (2003) and the Boghossian Foundation Prize for Young Lebanese Artists (2012). Her work is held in significant public and private collections, including the Barjeel Art Foundation, Dalloul Art Foundation, and Institut du Monde Arabe.
Tagreed lives and works in the UAE.
EDUCATION
2003, Space Art, École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (ENSAD), Paris, France
2000, Superior Studies, Painting and Sculpting, Lebanese University of Fine Art, Beirut, Lebanon; Diploma in Art Education, Teacher's Institution, Beirut, Lebanon
2000-2001, Ayloul's Summer Academy, workshop for young Arab artists at Darat al Funun, directed by the artist Marwan Kassab Bachi, Amman, JordanSOLO EXHIBITIONS
2025, Ballots to Bullets, Gallery MISR, Cairo, Egypt
2024, He Who Gazes At The Sea; The Man and The Land, Saleh Barakat Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon2023, Gardens and Jungles, Tabari Artspace, Dubai, UAE
2022, A City Undisguised; Beirut: No Home No Exile, Cromwell Place, London2020, Toys and Trophies: From Zeus's Pandora to Barbie Doll, Tabari Artspace, Dubai, UAE
2019, Strange Fruit, Tabari Artspace, Dubai, UAE
2018, A Second Coming, BAR (Beirut Art Residency), Beirut, Lebanon
Analogy to Human Life, Saleh Barakat Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon
2016, Ain’t Nowhere to Hide, Contemporary Art Platform ( CAP Kuwait), Kuwait
2014, Vision Machines: Shall You See Me Better Now, Agial Art Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon
2013, Rehearsals, Agial Art Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon
2011, Canticle of Death, Agial Art Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon
2010, Fair & Lovely, Agial Art Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon
2008, Mirror, Mirror!, Agial Art Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon
2006, Falling Parts, Goethe Institute, Beirut, Lebanon
2004, Still Features, Zico House, Beirut, LebanonGROUP EXHIBITIONS
2026, Same Air, Tabari Artspace, Dubai, UAE
2025, Fertile Dreams, Tabari Artspace, UAE
2021, Bodies That Matter, Berlin Art Lab, Berlin, Germany2021, Lights of Lebanon, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, France
2019, Ourouba/Arabicity, the Middle East Institute Art Gallery, Washington DC, US, curated by Rose Issa
Walking Through Walls, Gropius Bau Museum, Berlin, GermanyOut of Context, Saleh Barakat Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon2018, Face Value, Saleh Barakat Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon
2017, Our Beloved Bodies II, Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE
100 Chefs d’Oeuvre de l’Art Moderne et Contemporain Arabe, La Collection Barjeel, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, France
2016, Betsarof, Lebanese National Library, Beirut, Lebanon
2014, Thin Skin: Six Artists from Beirut, Taymour Grahn Gallery, New York, US
2013, Re-touch, New Paintings from Beirut, Forum for New Arab Art, Art-Lab, Berlin, Germany
L’insondable Surface, French Institute, Beirut, Lebanon
2012, Re-orientation II, Rose Issa Project, London, UK
2011, Subtitled: With Narratives from Lebanon, Royal College of Art, London, UK
Rebirth, Beirut Exhibition Center, Beirut, Lebanon
Residual, Maraya Art Centre, Al Qasba, Sharjah, UAE
2010, Mokhtarat Ministry of Culture and Education, Doha, Qatar
Zoom Contemporary Art Fair, Miami, Florida, USA
Connecting Heavens, Green Art Gallery, Dubai, UAE
10th Anniversary of Kasa Art Gallery, Kasa Galerie, Istanbul, Turkey
2008, Bos Laf, Kasa Gallery, Istanbul, Turkey
AIWA: Aley International Artists Workshop, Aley, Lebanon
2006, Attribute to Senghor, Downtown, Beirut, Lebanon
Arteclassica ,3era. Feria de Arte, Buenos Aires, Argentina
2004, El Bab, Theatre de Beyrouth, Beirut, Lebanon
2003, Cerf Volants Maison du Liban, CIUP, Paris, France
cm3, Cite Internationale Universitaire de Paris, Paris, France
2001, Four Artists, Zara Art Gallery, Amman, Jordan
Ayloul's Summer Academy, Darat al Funoun, Amman, Jordan
ART FAIRS
2025, Art Paris, Saleh Barakat Gallery, Paris, France
2024, Abu Dhabi Art, Tabari Artspace, UAE
2024, Art Dubai, Tabari Artspace, UAE
2023, Art Dubai, Saleh Barakat Gallery, Dubai, UAE2023, Art Paris, Saleh Barakat Gallery, Paris, France2022, Art Karlsruhe, Yvonne Hohner Contemporary, Karlsruhe, Germany2021, Abu Dhabi Art Fair, UAE
2020, Art Dubai, Saleh Barakat Galley, Dubai, UAE
2017, 2018, Art Dubai, Agial Art Gallery, Dubai, UAE
2017, Beirut Art Fair, Agial Art Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon
2016, Art Dubai, Agial Art Gallery, Dubai, UAE
2015, Abu Dhabi Art fair, Agial Art Gallery, Abu Dhabi, UAE
2014, Singapore Art Fair, Lebanese Pavilion, Singapore
2014, Art Dubai, Agial Art Gallery, Dubai, UAE
2013, Beirut Art Fair, Agial Art Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon
2011, Art Dubai, Agial Art Gallery, Dubai, UAE
COLLECTIONS
Barjeel Art Foundation
Imago Mundi Collection
Dalloul Art Foundation
Institut du Monde ArabePRIZES
2012, Boghossian Foundation Prize for Young Lebanese Artists (painting)2003, cm3 exhibition, Cité Internationale Universitaire De Paris, Paris, France (first prize)
2000, Ayloul's Summer Academy (exhibition), Darat al Funoun, Amman, Jordan (second prize)
SELECTED PRESS
2025, The Arab-Italian Connection: How This Boutique Art Hotel in Italy is Supporting Arab Talent, Vogue Arabia
2023, In Dubai, Artist Tagreed Darghouth Paints Her Own Version of War and Peace, Architectural Digest
2023, Exhibition of the Month: Gardens and Jungles, Tagreed Darghouth, Mojeh
2019, Harper's Bazaar, A Visit To Lebanese Artist Tagreed Darghouth's Mar Mikhael Studio In Beirut
2018, The National, Life and death and olive trees: Tagreed Darghouth on her biggest exhibition yet
2017, Financial Times, From war zone to haven: the view from Beirut
2016, Vogue, How Lebanese Artist Tagreed Darghouth Tackles Human Paradoxes
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Works
Tagreed Darghouth Lebanese, b. 1979
"The Tree Within" Series, , 2019Acrylic on canvas160 x 117 cm
63 x 46 1/8 inCopyright The ArtistSoldExhibitions
Lebanese painter Tagreed Darghouth.Concerned with the socio-political issues in her native Lebanon and beyond, Darghouth takes a research-driven approach to her works, primarily in acrylic on canvas, that tackle such topics as cosmetic surgery, domestic workers, life and death, war, destruction, identity, and displacement.
The artist draws inspiration from literature, philosophy, and the everyday realities of the Middle East as well as European masters like Rembrandt van Rijn and Vincent van Gogh to produce paintings that are not only uncomfortable, confronting, and challenging in their subject matter but also technically brilliant. Strange Fruit will be the first ever solo exhibition of works by Darghouth in Dubai. The series on display sees a juxtaposition between pastoral landscapes populated with Palestine’s ubiquitous olive trees and images depicting the destruction and violence resulting from the occupation. Allegedly, approximately 800,000 olive trees in occupied Palestine have been uprooted since 1967. Darghouth’s paintings, which refer to this destruction of the Palestinian olive groves, are imbued with the sentiments of Van Gogh on the significance of the olive tree as a ‘symbol for human life and its cycle’. Van Gogh believed that human interaction with nature, particularly during the olive harvesting season, formed a connection to the Divine. Darghouth also takes inspiration from these closing words by poet Mahmoud Darwish in The Second Olive Tree:But one of her grandsonsWho witnessed the execution threw a stoneAt a soldier, and was martyred with her.After the victorious soldiersHad gone on their way, we buried him there in that deepPit-the grandmother cradle. And that’s why we wereSure, that he would become, in a little while an olive.“This exhibition is another attempt to throw a stone.” -Tagreed DarghouthOn the power of art as social commentary Tagreed Darghouth says:“I think painting’s visual nature makes it an extremely powerful medium and mode of communication. A painting can cause much impact – all it requires is a mere glance from the observer.In my opinion it’s an artist’s duty to use this mighty language to shed light on matters that concern him or her and their surroundings.On the exhibition Tabari Artspace founder Maliha Tabari Says:“It seemed more than fitting that we dedicate March, which is the busiest month in Dubai’s art calendar and also Women’s Month to a powerful female force in the Middle Eastern art scene such as Tagreed Darghouth.Aside from her talent as a painter which is obvious, Darghouth deals with subject matter that many artists shy away from, yet her work provides an important insight into the social issues of the now.”The selected works aim to probe the socially constructed reality of feminine beauty and its relation to the male gaze in contemporary, neoliberal society. Working with acrylic on canvas the artist continues her unabashed social commentary, reflecting upon what she encounters on the streets of Beirut and beyond in the cybersphere where international mass media and social media platforms continue to shape and reinforce limiting and dominant visions of gender. Darghouth, who regularly connects far-flung influences from literature, philosophy and music to her personal experiences in the modern world now turns to Greek mythology as her point of departure. Pandora was the fabled first woman to be constructed in ancient Greek society and unleashed with unrivalled physical beauty and immense sexual allure.
The artist, probes the fabricated nature and superficiality of Pandora, a woman over whom Aphrodite ‘spilled grace’ and whose destiny was to become “evil men will love to embrace”. Conflating the classical with the contemporary throughout this body of work, Pandora, Darghouth reasons, is a myth but so too is the Barbie doll. Barbie's plastic physique has become a modern icon associated with pre-packaged western gender expectations and superficiality. The selected works see Dargouth’s paintbrush activate and amplify the constructed nature of human fictions and the fetishised status of femininity. Skulls, which have featured regularly in the artist's output since 2010, are included here refer back to her preoccupation with the notion of ‘Memento mori’ and feel all the more poignant now given the backdrop and context of this exhibition. Dargouth also interrogates the frail and fair frame of the Barbie doll, the unquestioned and iconised beauty of Venus and Aphrodite, glossed lips, the human torso and mannequin dummies which exist to be draped. Through prominent, layered brushstrokes and swift flicks of the wrist the artist engages in her own form of seduction as she pushes the viewer to consider her subjects anew.
Strange Fruit is a solo exhibition of works by acclaimed female, Lebanese painter, Tagreed Darghouth.
Concerned with the socio-political issues prevalent in her native Lebanon and beyond, Darghouth takes a research-driven approach to her works, primarily in acrylic on canvas, that tackle such topics as cosmetic surgery, domestic workers, life and death, war, destruction, identity, and displacement. The artist draws inspiration from literature, philosophy, and the everyday realities of the Middle East as well as European Masters like Rembrandt van Rijn and Vincent van Gogh to produce paintings that are not only uncomfortable, confronting, and challenging in their subject matter but also technically brilliant.
Strange Fruit will be the first ever solo exhibition of works by Darghouth in Dubai. The series on display sees a juxtaposition between pastoral landscapes populated with Palestine's ubiquitous olive trees and images depicting the destruction and violence resulting from the occupation. Allegedly, approximately 800,000 olive trees in occupied Palestine have been uprooted since 1967. Darghouth's paintings that refer to this destruction
of the Palestinian olive groves are imbued with the sentiments of Van Gogh on the significance of the olive tree as a 'symbol for human life and its cycle'. Van Gogh believed that human interaction with nature, particularly during the olive harvesting, formed a connection to the Divine. Darghouth also takes inspiration from these closing words by poet Mahmoud Darwish in The Second Olive Tree:
Exhibitions-
Same Air / نفس الهواء
11 May - 1 September 2026A group exhibition featuring fourteen artists of and connected to the Gulf, the exhibition includes works produced in direct response to a shared moment of disruption. Over the last month,...Explore -
Routes to Roots a Group Presentation at Abu Dhabi Art 2024
Sliman Mansour, Samah Shihadi, Michael Halak, Hazem Harb, Aya Haidar, Randa Maddah, Chafa Ghaddar and Tagreed Darghouth 20 - 24 November 2024Routes to Roots draws on James Clifford's concept that understanding one's cultural roots often requires embarking on new journeys or routes. This idea serves as the foundation for Tabari Artspace's...Explore -
Tabari Artspace Presents Women Artists of the MENA at Art Dubai 2024
Corporeal: Lands Through The Female Gaze 1 - 3 March 2024Multi-artist booth Chafa Ghaddar, Tagreed Darghouth, Hana Almilli, Miramar Al Nayyar, Aya Haidar, Maitha Abdalla, Samah Shihadi and Alymamah Rashed For Art Dubai, Tabari Artspace presents a multi-artist booth uniting...Explore -
Tabari Artspace Presents Tagreed Darghouth Solo, Gardens and Jungles
12 September - 18 November 2023For this highly anticipated solo exhibition, powerful female painter, Tagreed Darghouth has produced a body of work that responds to the militarisation of civil society.Explore -
A City Undisguised; Beirut: No Home No Exile
Tagreed Darghouth 8 - 12 June 2022Tabari Artspace presented the solo exhibition of Tagreed Darghouth at Cromwell Place, London.Explore -
Toys and Trophies: From Zeus’ Pandora to Barbie Doll
Tagreed Darghouth 20 October 2020 - 10 January 2021Toys and Trophies: From Zeus’ Pandora to Barbie Doll was the solo exhibition of Lebanese artist, Tagreed Darghouth, presented at Tabari Artspace gallery in Dubai.Explore -
Strange Fruit
Tagreed Darghouth 13 March - 23 April 2019Presented at Tabari Artspace art gallery in Dubai, Strange Fruit was the solo exhibition of acclaimed female, Lebanese painter, Tagreed Darghouth.Explore
Press
