Juliet Makhlouf

Oblong Contemporary Art Gallery is pleased to present Ancestry, an exhibition by Juliet Makhlouf featuring over thirty new paintings that reflect the artist’s sustained engagement with memory, ancestry, and shared cultural heritage.

Born in Syria in 1957 and currently based in Dubai, Makhlouf graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Graphic Department, at the University of Damascus in 1981, marking the beginning of a long and dedicated artistic career. Alongside her studio practice, she has worked extensively as an art educator in Syria, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, contributing significantly to arts education across the region.

Her work has been included in numerous prominent exhibitions, including several editions of the General Exhibition of Fine Arts in Sharjah between 1990 and 1995, and the group exhibition Eye of All Colors at the Alliance Française in 1996. Her solo exhibitions span Dubai, Sharjah, Damascus, and Madrid, including the internationally recognized En El Paraíso Imposible at the Arabic-Syrian Cultural Center in Madrid. In 2015, she presented her first solo exhibition in Dubai, revealing a shift toward geometric abstraction and optical structures that continues to define her visual language today.

Within Ancestry, Makhlouf approaches ancestry not as a distant past, but as a living presence. To admire one’s ancestors is to pay tribute to their enduring contributions — legacies that cannot be erased. Despite the destruction that has marked both ancient and contemporary histories, the works and traces that have survived remain imbued with beauty, meaning, and human depth. Their stories and influence have crossed all borders, extending to humanity as a whole.

Echoes of early civilizations appear as subtle references within the exhibition — from the memory of clay tablets that once recorded systems of trade, communication, and law, to foundational theological narratives, among which the Epic of Gilgamesh stands as a profound example. These are not presented as historical illustrations, but as cultural traces — fragments of knowledge and belief that continue to shape collective identity.

The story of Syria cannot be separated from that of the wider Arab world. Across centuries, shared events have shaped common values and collective memory. Our ancestors embody this memory, along with a transformative contribution to faith, philosophy, and human thought emerging from this region. Through abstraction, structure, and layered form, Makhlouf’s works invite reflection on continuity, resilience, and the enduring power of cultural memory — reminding us that heritage is not fixed in the past, but remains active within the present.