Born in Damascus, Syria in 1963, Rima Salamoun graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts at Damascus University in 1987. A member of the Syrian Syndicate of Fine Arts, she has participated in several collective exhibitions in the Arab world and Europe such as the acclaimed “Syrian Contemporary Art” at the Waqif Art Center in Qatar, and has held a number of solo shows at home and abroad, most notably at Gallery Espace Europia in France. In March 2010 she was featured in “Syrian Fine Art Painters” a group exhibition held at the UNESCO Palace in Beirut as part of the city’s “World Book Capital” proceedings, where her work was received with an overwhelming response from Lebanese viewers.

Salamoun’s acrylic and mixed media canvases are intentionally stark, as sorrow-filled subjects console each other amidst a dim world. Frequently featuring female protagonists, her works belong to a profound strand of Syrian art that has utilized women as powerful representations of the plight of humanity. Maintaining the anonymity of her subjects, she creates universal narratives from which viewers can grasp the weight of global concerns. She does so with an accomplished command of medium and an apparent talent for drawing.

Courtesy of Ayyam Gallery