Magda Malkoun is a self-taught, multifaceted artist who combines her interest in photography and sculpture in her artworks. She uses different types of material and texture not only as tools to paint with, but also to create forms. Early on, her focus was to reflect on canvas the psychology behind the individual, depicting thoroughly their emotions, capturing their happiness and grief. Magda’s body of work encompasses a series of figurative and abstract art retracing the places, events and the faces she came across in her long journey away from motherland, Lebanon. She exhibited in World Art Dubai and DIFC art night in 2020 and 2021 and won the Best Emerging Artist Award in World Art Dubai 2021. Her work has been featured in a number of magazines like Elle Decoration, Gallery Magazine and Laha Magazine.

These mixed media portraits are made of collage of painstakingly organized pictures. It is from a series of portraits of strong females inspired by the emotional conflicts and bonds of being born and raised in Beirut, which the artist describes as ‘a war zone city’. She is also exploring the conflicts of displacement while being away from it. Beirut is a city who has suffered decades of war and destruction leaving the hearts of many completely devastated. This accumulation of pain from a history of conflicts and destruction has made its people who they are today and represent what they are made of. The artworks are an invitation for self-reflection and remembrance of what makes us who we are and how we learn from our past to thrive and long for a better future.