Artist statement
(Under re-construction, yet again!)
Bio
Joumana Medlej is an artist-scholar from Lebanon, working at the intersection of creation and research. After an early career in graphic design and illustration, she found her vocation for the Kufi scripts during the years she assisted master Samir Sayegh in his Beirut studio. She went on to specialise in this early calligraphic tradition, from which she derived the visual language of her contemporary art practice. She also forged an expertise in the art technology of the medieval Middle East. Having abandoned synthetic paints for the old ways of colour-making, Joumana prepares her own art materials using historical techniques, often foraging for supplies. She draws on her practitioner’s experience to translate medieval Arabic handbooks into English and bring the voices of past masters to a general audience.
Joumana is now based in East London. Her work is found in private and public collections in Europe, the USA and the Middle East. She teaches Kufi calligraphy at the Arab British Centre and has given talks and demos about her work with historical art technology at Stanford, the School of Tradfitional Arts, the AUC and other institutions. She’s collaborated on educational projects with the Aga Khan Museum and the Goethe Institut, and has done work for the Royal Mint, Apple, Amnesty, BBC Arabic. She’s authored and published books on art technology (Inks & Paints of the Middle East, 2020; Wild Inks & Paints, 2021) and on forgotten aspects of the Arabic letters (Stories of Abjad, 2023).
CV
Joumana Medlej
Born 1979 in Beirut, Lebanon.
Lives and works in London, UK.
Education
2013 Diploma in Traditional Arts from the School of Traditional Arts, London
2007–2012 Assistant and apprentice to Master Samir Sayegh, Beirut, Lebanon
1997-2001 BGD (Bachelors of Graphic Design), American University of Beirut, 2001
Solo & TRIO Exhibitions
2022 The Written Word, The Woolf Institute, Cambridge, UK
2019 In So Many Words, Pictorem Gallery, London, UK
2017 Art in Times of Crisis, The Crafts Center at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, USA
2015 Lighting the Darkness, The Crypt Gallery, London, UK
2012 Maktoob: Contemporary Calligraphy, Art Lounge, Maasser Beiteddine, Lebanon
Selected group Exhibitions
2023 Highlights, Ithra Museum, King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia
2023 Through the Looking Glass, Swanfall Art, Mall Galleries, London
2023 Lebanon | Untitled, Janet Rady Fine Art x Artscoops, Cromwell Place, London (download catalogue)
2023 The Future of Traditions, Writing Pictures: Contemporary Art from the Middle East, Brunei Gallery, SOAS, London (download catalogue)
2022–23 The Handmade Book, Stanford Libraries, USA
2020 Works selected for the Sharjah Biennale 2020 (cancelled due to the pandemic)
2019– Treasures of the British Library, The British Library, London
2018 The Society of Women Artists Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London
2015 Signs, Traces and Calligraphy, Rose Issa Projects, Beirut, Lebanon
2014 Great Lebanese Painters of the Jihad and Farouk Abillama Collection, Beirut, Lebanon
2014 Fifth Summer Art Festival, Sharjah Art Museum, UAE
2013–14 Kuwait’s Sixth International Islamic Arts Convention, Kuwait
Collections
- Princeton University Firestone Library Special Collections, Princeton, USA
- The Psyche Collection, Paris, France
- Harvard Fine Arts Library Special Collections, Cambridge, USA
- Stanford Libraries Gunst Collection, Stanford, USA
- Contemporary British Published Collections, The British Library, London, UK
- The Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies, Raleigh, USA
- Gallery One, King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia
- The Jihad and Farouk Abillama Collection, Beirut, Lebanon
Residencies
2024 Visiting Research Fellow in Creative Arts at Merton College, Oxford
2023 Arteventura, Aracena, Spain
2017 Artist in Residence, The Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies, Raleigh, USA
Publications & Press
- Interview on Radio New Zealand Nights, July 2024
- Press for Lebanon | Untitled: Arab News (+video), The National, L’Orient-Le Jour, Al-Sharq al-Awsat.
- Press for The Future of Traditions: The National, Because Magazine.
- Press for The Written Word: BBC, Cambridge Independent, iTV Anglia (12 June 22), BBC One Sunday Morning (25 July 22).
- The New Arab, July 2023
- The Dark Mountain Project: Making and Unmaking the World, June 2023
- The Anglo-Arab Voice podcast, March 2022
- Tasaworat: Words as Symbols, 2021
- Art Fervour, Nov. 2020
- Middle East Eye, 2019
- Art Illuminated podcast, 2018
- Al Kashaf, Al Araby TV, 5 April 2016
- Femme Magazine, 2015
- El-Iktisad, 2015
teaching & talks
2024 Inks & Paints of the Abbasids, Merton College, Oxford
2024 Beyond the Letters, online workshop with VCUarts Qatar
2024 Art as Knowledge Keeper, Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon (starts around 5:19:00).
2024 Making Inks from Plants, Making Paints from Pigment, nine-day course, School of Calligraphy and Ornamentation, Fujairah, UAE
2023 Translation through Praxis, demonstration talk for ‘Decoding Recipes’ conference, University of Sheffield
2023 My Journey with Kufi: Freedom in Restriction, online lecture, Letterform Archive
2023 The Art of Letting Go, keynote lecture for the Collegium ‘Uncertainty and the Handmade’, Stanford Libraries, USA
2023 Magical Inks of Ghāyat al-Hakim workshop for ‘Science & Craft’ conference, Warburg Institute, London
2022 Inks & Paints of the Middle East, five-day course, School of Traditional Arts, London
2022 Al-Qalalusi’s Colour Palette, lecture, School of Traditional Arts, London
2022 Introduction to Manuscript Kufi, online workshop, Aga Khan Museum
2022 Mentor for Circular Design Training Program, Goethe Institut
2021 Natural Dyes zoom lecture, American University of Cairo, Egypt
2019 Artist Books Now, panel, British Library, London
2018 Creative workshop, British Museum
2017 Art in Times of Crisis, lecture, The Crafts Center at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, USA
2016 Living With Mystery, panel, St Ethelburga’s Centre for Reconciliation and Peace, London
2014– Tutor in Kufi calligraphy and related techniques, The Arab-British Centre, London (ongoing)