Jacques Vartabedian (b. 1987, Beirut) is a Lebanese-Armenian artist whose interdisciplinary practice spans painting, installation, and collaborative formats. His work, informed by lived experience, political contexts, and visual memory, constructs delicate image-worlds where interruption serves as a mode of perception. Vartabedian examines how forms behave under spatial, emotional, or historical pressure, frequently dismantling traditional structures to favor poetic dissonance.
Across a consistently evolving body of work, Vartabedian navigates the blurred boundaries between figuration and abstraction, marked by an acute sensitivity to the fragmentation of space, identity, and narrative. His works embody a persistent tension between familiarity and instability. Employing repetition, erasure, spatial displacement, and shifts in scale, he creates pictorial environments that are simultaneously precise and permeable.
Vartabedian earned his BA and MA in Painting from the Lebanese Institute of Fine Arts and has exhibited internationally across the Middle East, Europe, and Asia. He currently lives and works in Beirut.
Awards
- 2016 Boghossian Foundation’s Painting Prize
- 2015 Art on Board project, Beirut, by Saradar group, Painting Prize
Selected Solo Shows
- 2025 “Sorry for Interrupting”, Tanit Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon
- 2025 “3 Games” x White Paper Duo, Nomad Utopia, Beirut, Lebanon
- 2020 “How to make a Human Pattern” Artlab, Beirut, Lebanon
- 2018 “In The Memory of the Ones Who Won’t Make It”, Mark Hachem Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon
- 2018 “N O B O D I E S”, 392rmeil393 gallery, Beirut, Lebanon
- 2017 “Transpositions” (In Situ), ECAPS, Beirut, Lebanon
- 2016 “Reflect” Duo show, Tabari Art Space, Dubai
- 2015 “Dreams in Black and White”, 392rmeil393 Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon
Selected Collective Exhibitions
- 2025 “Dessine-Moi L’orient” Gallery Salwa Zeidan, Abu Dhabi
- 2025 “Bittersweet Symphony” Gallery Tanit, Beirut, Lebanon
- 2023 “Uncharted”, Charles Corm Foundation, Beirut, Lebanon
- 2023 “Upcycled Tree”, Dar El Nemr, Beirut, Lebanon
- 2022 “Flux”, Arthaus, No-mad Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon
- 2022 “Dessine Moi la Mediterannee” Monaco Mediterranee Salon, Monaco
- 2022 “Lights of a Rebirth”, Sursock Palace, Beirut, Lebanon
- 2022 “Armenia Art Fair”, Yerevan, Armenia
- 2022 “MENA Art Fair”, Paris, France
- 2021 “Dessine moi un Cedre”, Paris, France
- 2021 “Dessine moi un Cedre”, Arthaus, Beirut, Lebanon
- 2021 “Before the Cypress Broke”, Void Gallery, Ireland
- 2020 “In 24-hours”, Wall Space Gallery, Scotland, UK
- 2019 “October 17”, Gallery Janine Rubeiz, Beirut, Lebanon
- 2019 “State of Mind”, Gallery Mark Hachem, Beirut, Lebanon
- 2019 “Beirut Art Fair”, Beirut, Lebanon
- 2019 “Biennale of Contemporary Art 2019”, Macam, Aalita, Lebanon
- 2018 “Salon d’automne”, Sursock Museum, Beirut, Lebanon
- 2017 “Mediterranean Culture”, l’Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna, Italy
- 2017 “Beirut Art Fair”, Revealing, Beirut, Lebanon
- 2016 “Art Central”, Hong Kong
- 2015 “No Food’s Land”, BJCEM Biennale, Milan, Italy
- 2014 “Extraordinary Art Exhibition”, The Venue, Beirut, Lebanon
- 2013 “Wish You Were Here” Project, Germany
Artist Residencies
- 2018 Villa Empain, Brussels, Belgium