Sara Tohme

b. 1995, Lebanon

We see more than 1,000 faces every day. Some we know, some we never will. Some we remember, others we instantly forget. Some strike us, others pass us by and our own faces fascinate us, for better or for worse. But what is a face other than the first thing you see in a person, the most crucial part of their identity? Is a face capable of communicating genuine feelings? Can you know someone by looking at their face only? My portraits explore this fascination of the face as a façade or as a window to someone’s inside through the use of bright colors paralleled with dark indifference. They celebrate the insignificance of faces by making them significantly important, isolating them from the rest of the body and their surroundings, focusing all the attention on them. I tried to give them a sense of familiarity, so that people staring feel that there is at least one face that they’ve seen somewhere, that looks like someone they know. The challenge is to understand or agree on the uneasiness of the faces before them. In some way, I paint to understand my surroundings; I paint pieces of everyone around me.

2017 McGill University, BA in Arts

2022 'Dreaming Tomorrow', Emergeast
2022 Dar Art Fair, Amman, Jordan
2021 Young Dreams, Août Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon
2020 Art Number 23, Athens, Greece
2020 Uplifting Boost, virtual exhibition, Dagaz Gallery
2019 Paratissima, Torino, Italy
2018 Emerge Art Exhibition, Zico House Beirut, Lebanon
2018 The Outsiders Exhibition - Art Lab Beirut, Lebanon
2013 Group Exhibition, Souks Beirut, Lebanon