Simone Fattal

Simone Fattal is a painter and ceramics sculptor who was born in Damascus and grew up in Lebanon. She studied philosophy at the Ecole letters of Beirut and at the Sorbonne, before embarking on a career as a painter. She began painting in 1969 when she returned to Beirut after completing her studies in France. In the early 1970s, she attended Dar el-Fan Janine Rubeiz in Beirut as a painter, photographer and writer. In 1980 she settled in California and founded the Post-Apollo Press, a publishing house dedicated to innovative, experimental literary work. She returned to her career as an artist in 1989, through the medium of ceramics sculpture. During this period, she worked at the prestigious workshop of Hans Spinner in Grasse, France. Her paintings and sculptures have been exhibited widely. In 1993, a retrospective of her paintings was held in Dar El-Nadwa in Beirut. In 1994, she participated in the traveling exhibition “Forces of Change: Women Artists From the Arab World” in Washington. Her sculptures have recently been exhibited in Beirut, France, Germany, England, New York, and California.