Helen Zughaib

Helen Zughaib is a painter and multimedia artist living in working in Washington, D.C.. She was the daughter of a State Department civil servant. Her family left Lebanon in 1975 due to the outbreak Lebanese Civil War, and moved to Europe as a teenager, attending high school in Paris. She moved to the United States to study visual and performing arts at Syracuse University. She uses gouache as her primary medium, but also creates mixed media installations.

Zughaib’s work comments on cultural identity, family life, the plight of refugees and displacement in the Middle East, the Arab Spring, and the Lebanese Civil War. Her notable series of 23 paintings titled “Stories My Father Told Me”, for example, is based on the folks tales and family history that her Lebanese father has told her over the years, and includes numerous stories of migration and displacement. The complete series was shown at the Arab American National Museum in 2015.

Zughaib’s style combines a variety of art historical references and influences including post-Impressionism and pop art with Islamic art motifs of geometric patterns and floral arabesque. Her work can be found in many notable collections, such as The White House, World Bank, Library of Congress, and the Arab American National Museum. She has had over 20 solo exhibitions in the U.S. and Middle East.