Born in Syria in 1953, Ziad Dalloul started painting and writing at a very young age. He graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Damascus in 1977 then studied at the Ecole nationale supérieure des Arts décoratifs in Paris. Dalloul has held solo and group exhibitions in Europe and various Arab countries. He has produced several print portfolios with Syrian poet Adonis. In 1994, he was awarded the Gold Medal at the International Egyptian Printing Triennial. He has lived and worked in Paris since 1984.

“In colour and through colour, Ziad Dalloul travels towards objects and within them. He moves among its gradations and layers, exploring its mysteries.

His colours do not merely question nature but also carry a preoccupation with research—a singular and particular preoccupation through which the senses acquire intellect, and matter has feeling. The latter seems to be inhabited by ghosts of his childhood, by the smells of its fields, its clouds, by memories and traces, as well as a climate through which seeps air, water, fire and earth.

As if, in fact, colour becomes personified.”

Adonis

Syrian poet