As part of this year’s Shubbak Festival, which brings the best of contemporary Arab culture to London, The Mosaic Rooms is launching a group exhibition exploring the work of a number of emerging artists that have a personal or professional connection with Beirut.

The exhibition, entitled “I Spy With My Little Eye: A New Generation of Beirut Artists,” has been curated by Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath as a result of the research they conducted when they curated the Lebanese Pavilion for the 2013 Venice Biennale.

The participating artists are Caline Aoun, George Awde, Mirna Bamieh, Nour Bishouty, Pascal Hachem, Charbel-Joseph H. Boutros, Aya Haidar, Geörgette Power, Siska, Stéphanie Saadé, Joe Namy, Lara Tabet, and Tala Worrell.

The 13 artists are presenting works across a wide range of media, including painting, video, installation, photography, and performance.

Joe Namy, film still from A Third Half Step (2013)
Photo: Courtesy the artist

In the last few years, Beirut has emerged as a thriving hub for contemporary art, where the lack of public funding has triggered a number of exciting grassroots initiatives by individuals and collectives seeking to reclaim public space and generate political and artistic debate.

“’I Spy with My Little Eye’ provides the artists with an opportunity to showcase their works within a generational context, intimating the rise of a young movement marked by a shift in formal and semantic concerns,” said the curators of the exhibition, who co-founded the Munich and New York-based curatorial platform Art Reoriented in 2009.

Aya Haidar, Return to Sender
Photo: Courtesy the artist and Athr

“I Spy With My Little Eye: A New Generation of Beirut Artists” will be on view at The Mosaic Rooms, London, from July 11-August 22, 2015.