Ones to Watch: Zeina Kara Ali

Art Edit has selected Zeina Kara Ali as an outstanding artist to have on your radar.

“I have a deep affinity with beauty,” confesses Sydney-based artist Zeina Kara Ali, who was born and raised in Lebanon. First trained in Biology, her supreme powers of observation translate to sensitively rendered landscape and still-life works brimming with character and careful detail. Kara Ali spent several years in Ghana, where she ran an art studio, before studying at Sydney Art School from 2020-2022. It was here that she uncovered her own artistic purpose: “portraying the symmetry, light and beauty found in places.” Her identity reverberates strongly through her recent work, paying nostalgic homage to the vibrant Lebanese culture and architecture of her childhood. Continuing to gain momentum, 2023 saw the artist named as a finalist in Blacktown City Art Prize, Hunters Hill Art Exhibition, and Fisher’s Ghost Art Award. In 2024 she has already exhibited work in a number of group exhibitions and her first solo exhibition Arches Memory opened in June, this show including her Lebanese architecture series.

Above: Zeina Kara Ali, The Grandma’s House, 2023. Acrylic on canvas, 60 x 50cm.

COURTESY: THE ARTIST.

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