Lebanese artist Mazen al-Rifai is deeply indebted to a modernist landscape tradition, his work resting comfortably within this oeuvre. There is a treatment of a specific light, the place of Baalbek, and a crystallisation of that place into distinct, more or less abstracted forms. A rapt attention to the contrasting qualities of colour and shade, light and dark, soft and hard, provide depth and belie the complexity of the subtle shifts that he seeks to describe. One side of the canvas is warm, another cool, one line dissolves into a layer below, and another splays out at its edge while remaining just that, the edge. Layers of paint tempt the eye, yet remain mostly obscured, only a sense of depth and the glimpses caught at the edge of one form as it becomes another, show the careful accretion of paint over time.

In his maturity as a painter Rifai has entered new ground, bringing with him a firm understanding of where he came from, and a tantalising glimpse of where he might go next. His current work sees a move into form that can morph beyond landscape, yet gifted with that light, those colours that refer always back to the land of his heart, the Bekaa. Look closely and you will see that Rifai is reaching for the human, the soft and the hard, body and soul. The jewel like forms of one painting are a high contrast to the absolute softness and subtlety of another. At times, soft and hard play out in the same painting, and there is a reach towards a new dimension, the form in the world taking new and unexpected shape and meaning.

Mazen Rifai (b. 1957) was born in Baalbeck and lives and works in Beirut, Lebanon. He holds a degree in interior architecture from the Lebanese University, Beirut and a degree in Fine Arts from the Academia de Macerta, Italy. Between 1987 and 1993 he was professor of fine arts and the head of department at the Lebanese University and is also an art director at the firm, Engineers, Consulting & Contracting. Since 1981 he has held many solo exhibitions in Beirut and Paris. These include exhibitions at; Epreuve d’artiste, Galerie Rochane, Galerie Aida Cherfan, Gallery 6, Agial Art Gallery, Galerie 34 Bonaparte, and Galerie Alex Menem. He has also participated in numerous editions of Sursock Museum’s Salon d’Automne starting in 1974. In 1984, he contributed to the Beirut Central District Reconstruction Plan with Oger Liban and is a member of the Baalbeck International Festival Committee. Rifai has published two books: Baalbeck in Black and White with Dar Al-Nahar in 2007, Baalbeck 1981-2011 with Fine Arts Publishing in 2011.