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Beirut · 06/10/2026

Jean Boghossian: A Constant Flame

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Jean Boghossian: A Constant Flame

The work of Jean Boghossian is formed from one of the humblest and simplest of actions, the spark of a flame, and yet one of the most important in human history. Both humble and profound, the use of fire speaks to the power of a simple gesture to transform material, and to a personal curiosity about the process of burning and transformation. However significant, the flame is only part of the story. Also at play are colour, texture, a volcanic eruption, a cedar, the simple rhythm of bones emerging, or the glitch in the machine: a challenge to an established order. Boghossian's "fire dance", as he has termed it, is a delicate search for balance within chaos, a transformation of the surface through attention, skill and care. Humble and violent at once, fire represents both sides of life, and of humanity. His exhibition at Saleh Barakat Gallery draws together painting, wood sculptures and ceramics. Oil, pigments, smoke, ashes, paper, wood, clay and acrylic are combined with techniques such as folding and collage, and then joined by fire. Tending increasingly toward abstraction, his ceramics, a practice he has pursued over the last eight years, have an organic movement and a natural relationship with the flame, the kiln and the oven, as clay turns hard, brittle and stable under heat. Across all of these material explorations there is density, depth, sensitivity and thickness: crackling, cracking, marbling, surface.

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