Maha Mahfouz is a talented Lebanese Artist whose work is deeply rooted in strong middle eastern traditions but draws contemporary inspiration from her diverse experiences that come from living in a variety of countries and being exposed to an array of richly deep cultures.
She was always fascinated by the city life with all its advantages and disadvantages whether in Beirut her home country or in Dubai her second home where she resides now.
Initially working as an Interior designer, her travels across Australia, Singapore, Egypt and a 3 year stay in Indonesia sparked a growth of inspiration within her fueled by the local art scene. She learnt to use a variety of new mediums to express her message from drawing on silk in Indonesia to oil painting to finally find her passion for acrylic media combined sometimes with collage and paper cuts from magazines.
Inspired by culture and real-life emotions, her art has been described as “the kind of art driven by experiences.”
Her paintings cover the full gamut of human emotion, and wherever they may be on that vast spectrum, they are given the same depth of feeling and expression within her carefully crafted artwork, no matter the medium or channel.
Since the early days, her main passion has always been painting and pencil drawing, This is what drove her to pursue her dream and further learn the art of technical drawing and painting courses in Lebanon while she was preparing for her BA in Interior Design from the Lebanese American University in 1990 where she had great teachers, the likes of the well known artist Rached Bohsali.
In 2004 she relocated to Dubai with her family and her journey with Art started.
In that same year she staged a collective exhibition in Jumeirah 1 under Lebanese women’s work with media coverage and in 2006 she joined the collective group exhibition MOSAÏC at the Dubai Ladies Club.
2006 was a busy year not only with her aforementioned exhibitions but also with her paintings being displayed and sold at the prestigious gallery OBEGI HOME since their opening in Dubai. This collaboration with OBEGI led in 2007 for her to be assigned by NAKHEEL to provide all paintings for their showhouse in Jumeirah Park. This collaboration lasted for seven years where she sold most of her paintings and artwork.
Since 2019, part of her works now reside in well known online gallery the likes of The Gallerist Beirut in Lebanon.