Kelly Halabi is a London-based sculptor and painter whose work seeks beauty in unexpected places. Halabi grew up in Paris but frequently visited Lebanon with her parents. From a young age, the country had a lasting impact on her. Lebanon is a place of contrasts, in which traditional Arabic architecture, buildings ruined by war and reclaimed natural space sit in harmonies and discord. Halabi recalls an early memory of being transfixed by bullet holes in a wall, imagining the gun that made them and the profound history that the marks communicated. This acute sensitivity to materials and the narratives encoded within objects are themes that recur throughout Halabi’s work today.
Halabi studied at the Fine Art at the Parsons School of Design in Paris. There she specialised in bronze sculpture, a medium that provides a point of endless fascination for Halabi in its versatility and rawness. Her work has been exhibited in Paris, London, Beirut and Cologne.
