Ziad Abillama is an artist-author.
Not of novels,
not of heroic narratives,

not of solutions.


His work thinks, resists, and writes the real through form, failure, and frustration.
Across installation and sculpture, Abillama constructs situations where meaning is unsettled and certainty postponed, inviting the viewer into a space of critical reflection rather than resolution.

Selected Works & Exhibitions

  • Direct Expression: Forum for rethinking the Israeli/Palestinian conflict; Massachusetts; 1991
  • Installation on the first Gulf War; Massachusetts; 1991
  • Installation on the necessity to map out the Lebanese war as a site for the reappropriation of Lebanese consciousness; Beirut; 1992
  • Participation in the contest for the reconstruction of downtown Beirut with the architect Bernard Khoury; Beirut; 1992
  • Where Are We?; Saint Balech Beach, Beirut; 1992
  • Sanayeh: The Impossible Community; Sanayeh Garden, Beirut; 1995
  • The political unconscious of exotic travels; Berlin; 1996
  • Reconsideration of the Shortcomings of Lebanese Nationalist Ideology - Reconstruction as the Unsettled Debt to Modern Western Philosophy; Salon des Artistes Décorateurs, Beirut; 1996
  • Rester un Arabe pour l’émancipation des Juifs: témoignage et manipulation; Jerusalem; 1996
  • Système Full Fill; Beirut; 1996
  • Sculpture exhibition. No politics.; Beirut; 1998
  • Untitled; Épreuve d’artiste Gallery, Beirut; 1999
  • ARTUEL Salon international de l’art contemporain; Beirut; 2000
  • Délire Esthétique (Aesthetic Delirium); Épreuve d’artiste Gallery, Beirut; 2004
  • Sculpture exhibition. No politics.; Beirut; 2004
  • Video as a tool to reconsider rationally the Lebanese past.; Beirut; 2005
  • Sexuality and desire as alternatives to pathological warfare.; Beirut; 2005
  • Why Don’t You Stop Dying; Né à Beyrouth, Beirut; 2005
  • Nature and Drugs; FairPlay Video Festival, Berlin; 2006
  • Out of Beirut; Modern Art Oxford, London; 2006
  • Les chaises frustrantes; Art Lounge, Beirut; 2007
  • La défaite de l’exotisme; Faqra Club; 2008
  • Images: fixe, mobile, animée; Institut français du Liban, Beirut; 2009
  • The Future of a Promise; Magazzini del Sale, 54th Venice Biennale, Venice; 2011
  • Art Dubai; Dubai; 2011
  • Museum as Hub: Beirut Art Center: Due to unforeseen events…; Beirut Art Center, Beirut; 2011
  • Museum as Hub: Beirut Art Center: Due to unforeseen events…; New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York; 2011
  • Art is the Answer; Villa Empain, Brussels; 2012
  • Post-Fascism, Post-Imperialism, Post Ziad; Atelier Ziad Abillama, Dbayeh; 2013
  • Art is the Answer; Beirut Exhibition Center, Beirut; 2013
  • Beirut Art Fair; Beirut; 2014
  • Art Dubai; Dubai; 2016
  • Beirut Art Fair; Beirut; 2017
  • Croquez Monsieur, chères Mesdames; Imago Mundi Collection, Treviso; 2017
  • The Twisted Wing of the Airplane King; Agial Art Gallery, Beirut; 2017
  • Home Beirut. Sounding the Neighbors; Galleria 3, MAXXI Museo nazionale delle arti XXI secolo, Rome; 2017
  • Beirut Art Fair; Beirut; 2018
  • The Horror, The Horror, The Horror - Harald Szeemann and the Archive; AUB, Beirut; 2018
  • Reality in the Real: Ziad Abillama, FAP; London; 2021
  • La colonne et les chaises allégoriques; Arthaus, Beirut; 2021
  • Les érections irréductibles; Agial Art Gallery, Beirut; 2022
  • Panorama de la sculpture au Liban; MACAM, Lebanon; 2023
  • Intimate Garden Scene; Sursock Museum; 2023-2024

Ziad Abillama’s practice unfolds across installation and conceptual sculpture.


He works:

  • without narration,
  • without symbolism that resolves,
  • without functional certainty.


His objects resist use, balance, and comfort.

They expose instability as a condition of thought, and frustration as a productive space where meaning is questioned rather than delivered.


Through industrial materials and controlled dysfunction, Abillama positions art as a forum - not for answers, but for critical engagement with power, history, and lived experience.