painter/writer 

Practice in painting and in writing seeks transparency in depicting the color of light and guides the audience to probe inner experience through turbulence to acceptance. 

Paints in oil, watercolor, ink, mixed-media on paper or on canvas, and writes both poetry and prose, publishing eight books to date. 

artist statement 

 “My life in art is a perpetual return to what resonates within me and what prompts me to open gates into unknown gardens: to plant and to weed, to prune and to cultivate, both senses and thoughts into a coherent, organic and complex whole. As I move forward, I always return to what underlies my direct experience: a shaft of light. A memory of closeness. The feel of earth as I descend an old staircase. The wind. Riding a wave. Saying something ‘right’. Being a part. Forming a whole. 

I see my art as a garden without a fence. In the past I built fences that bound my return, my search, in time and in space. Today I feel my garden opening, becoming limitless and free, having been watered by endless journeys of exile and of communion; of love and of separation; of milk and of merging mirrors. 

I only wish that my garden is deep enough and expansive enough to contain you. For we are each other’s mirror. And our birth grows out of our joint reflection. My hope is that these reflections form the roots for more growth and more love. Despite all.” 

collections 

Zurayk’s artwork is in the permanent collections of the British Museum, London, UK; Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE; the Sursock Museum, Beirut, Lebanon; Darat al-Funun, Amman, Jordan. 

gallery representation 

Saleh Barakat Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon 

info@salehbarakatgallery.com 

www.salehbarakatgallery.com 

upcoming and current exhibitions (2025) 

past exhibitions 

2025

2019-2023

‘Light Enters’, two artist exhibition with Amy Todman 

15 Beautreillis |Paris, France 

Three exhibitions at Saleh Barakat Gallery | Beirut, Lebanon

2018

Beit Beirut | Beirut, Lebanon

‘shifting lights’ exhibition in collaboration with Rami Saab & Noel Nasr. Designed by Twig Collaborative

1997-2013

Five Exhibitions at Janine Rubiez Gallery | Beirut, Lebanon

Exhibition at Maqam Gallery, with Noel Nasr photographer | Beirut, Lebanon 

selected group exhibitions 

published art books

the view from within, limited edition | Twig Collaborative, Beirut, Lebanon 

The development of the artist’s work explored as process and thought unfolding in space. 

beyond art, limited edition | Twig Collaborative, Beirut, Lebanon 

A book of poems and paintings conversing in a changing world. 

return journeys | Twig Collaborative, Beirut, Lebanon 

Eponymous publication of the retrospective exhibition held that year at Saleh Barakat Gallery. 

drawn by light | American University of Beirut Press, Beirut, Lebanon 

Selections of paintings and texts looking within while observing from without. 

shifting lights | Librairie Antoine Distributor, Beirut, Lebanon 

Eponymous catalogue of the Shifting Lights exhibition at Beit Beirut. 

drawn poems, limited edition | Self-published 

Ink drawings realized in response to three Beethoven piano sonatas. 

lovesong | Rimal Publications, Nicosia, Cyprus 

A book of poems and paintings on love and loving. 

my father. reflections | Librairie Antoine Distributor, Beirut, Lebanon 

An experiential multimedia exploration of a complex relationship; sculpture, photography, suggested music. Noel Nasr, photographer. 

interviews

2025

2025

experience

education