Green Art Gallery is holding Citadelles of Today, a solo exhibition by artist and sculptor Chaouki Choukini. It features his new wooden sculptures paying tribute to the architectural heritage of Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq. Visitors will be able to explore Choukini’s distinctive creations until 20 January 2025.
Choukini’s intricate sculptures blend organic and mechanical elements, abstraction and figuration, and linear and non-linear forms. These works embody a convergence of opposites, offering an open-ended experience with no clear beginning or end. Since the 1970s, Choukini has moved beyond conventional sculpture-making, crafting visual plateaus that serve as horizons of meticulously designed shapes and symbols.
The symbolic depth of Choukini’s art emerges through subtle cues, including the evocative titles of his pieces. While his sculptures hint at physical actions or functions, they avoid traditional imagery, challenging viewers to interpret them through a different lens.
The artist’s work invites reflection on our perception and tactile senses, exploring the interplay between sculptural, landscape, and architectural spaces. His creations transition seamlessly: where a sculpture ends, a fragment of the landscape begins; where the landscape concludes, a hint of architecture emerges.
The exhibition title, Citadelles of Today, references West Asian landscapes and traditional architecture: metaphorical cities of sand made of ancient bricks and tiles, rooted in the earth. These structures embody both fragility, as they are shaped by seismic frequencies, and resilience, as they continuously return to and arise from dust. Choukini’s works reveal hidden layers, plateau by plateau, uncovering spaces that hold the healing potential.
About the artist
Chaouki Choukini (b. 1946, Choukine, Lebanon) is based in Paris. A graduate of the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris (1972), he taught sculpture at Lebanese University in Tripoli (Lebanon) (1985–1987) and Yarmouk University in Jordan (1989–1991).
Famous for his wooden, marble, and stone sculptures, Choukini blur the lines between abstraction and representation, evoking places, events, and figures. His early horizontal pieces depicted landscapes from his village, evolving later into vertical sculptures with a modern aesthetic. A pivotal year in Japan (1984) introduced him to Zen philosophy and minimalism, which inspired him to pierce his sculptures, integrating light and air into their design.
The artist has displayed his works in multiple exhibitions, such as L’Almanach 23: Kleinplastik (Abstrakte) (Le Consortium, Dijon, France, 2023); Beloved Bodies (Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah, 2017); Tajreed (Arab Abstract Art), (Contemporary Art Platform, Kuwait, 2013); International Aswan Sculpture Symposium, Cairo Biennial (Egypt, 1997); and Biennale d’Issy les Moulineaux (France, 1994).
Choukini’s accolades include the Prix de la Jeune Sculpture (1978), the Taylor Foundation Prize (2010), and the Prix de la Fondation Pierre Gianadda from the Académie des Beaux-Arts, France (2015). His creations are part of esteemed public collections, which include Mathaf, the Arab Museum of Modern Art (Doha, Qatar), Centre Pompidou (Paris, France), and the National Gallery of Fine Arts (Amman, Jordan), among others.
To get more information about Citadelles of Today, please go to the official web page of the exhibition.
Additionally, you might be interested in visiting Your Sun That Kept Setting by Chafa Ghaddar.
