Andrée Sfeir-Semler (born 1953 in Beirut, Lebanon) is a German-Lebanese art historian and gallery owner. Her Sfeir-Semler Gallery has branches in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

and

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

, and both locations represent artists working in the field of conceptual art with a preference on political subjects. Since 2003, Sfeir-Semler Gallery has focused on contemporary art from the

Arab World The Arab world ( '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, comprises a large group of countries, mainly located in West Asia and North Africa. While the majority of people in ...

Early life and education

Sfeir Sfeir () is a Maronite Christian clan surname from Lebanon, which appears with the highest density in the mountainous Keserwan District. As a result of the Lebanese diaspora, the name has flourished in North and South America, Western Europe, Austr ...

-Semler studied fine art at the

American University of Beirut The American University of Beirut (AUB; ) is a private, non-sectarian, and independent university chartered in New York with its main campus in Beirut, Lebanon. AUB is governed by a private, autonomous board of trustees and offers programs le ...

and filmmaking at the "Centre for cinema and television" in Beirut. In 1975 she was awarded a

Fulbright Program The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...

Scholarship and a DAAD German Academic Exchange Service scholarship to continue her studies as a filmmaker. She opted for the latter. She continued her studies at the universities of Munich, Bielefeld with Wolfgang Mager & Juergen Kocka and at the Sorbonne with

Pierre Bourdieu Pierre Bourdieu (, ; ; ; 1 August 1930 – 23 January 2002) was a French sociologist and public intellectual. Bourdieu's contributions to the sociology of education, the theory of sociology, and sociology of aesthetics have achieved wide influ ...

. She finished her PhD in 1980 with a thesis entitled "Die Maler am Pariser Salon: 1791 - 1880" (English: ''The Painters at the Paris Salon: 1791-1880''). The book is a computer-based social history of the 19th-century French art scene.

Gallery

In 1985 Sfeir-Semler opened her first gallery in Kiel, Germany. In 1998, she moved the gallery to Hamburg, where the German branch of Sfeir-Semler Gallery is still based. Beirut gallery: "After 20 years running a top-notch blue-chip contemporary gallery for minimal and conceptual art in Hamburg, owner Andree Sfeir-Semler decided she wanted to expand her business and return to the city she left behind in 1975." In April 2005, on the 20th anniversary of the opening of her German gallery, she made her Beirut exhibition début with "Flight 405", a group show of work by The Atlas Group/Walid Raad, Elger Esser,

Alfredo Jaar Alfredo Jaar (; ; born 1956) is a Chilean-born artist, architect, photographer and filmmaker who lives in New York City. He is mostly known as an installation artist, often incorporating photography and covering socio-political issues and war—th ...

Emily Jacir Emily Jacir () is a Palestinian artist and filmmaker based in the Bethlehem, Palestine. Early life and education Emily Jacir grew up in Saudi Arabia and attended high school in Italy. She graduated with a degree in art from the University o ...

, Amal al Kenawy, Till Krause, Hiroyuki Masuyama,

Michelangelo Pistoletto Michelangelo Pistoletto (born 23 June 1933) is an Italian painter, action and object artist, and art theorist. Pistoletto is acknowledged as one of the main representatives of the Italian Arte Povera. His work mainly deals with the subject mat ...

, and

Akram Zaatari Akram Zaatari (born 1966 in Sidon, Lebanon) is a filmmaker, photographer, archival artist and curator. In 1997, he co-founded the Arab Image Foundation with photographers Fouad Elkoury, and Samer Mohdad. His work is largely based on collecting, stu ...

. Since then she has mounted numerous exhibitions including the first one-person-shows in the Middle East by

Walid Raad Walid Raad (Ra'ad) (Arabic: وليد رعد) (born 1967 in Chbanieh, Lebanon) is a contemporary media artist. The Atlas Group is a fictional collective, the work of which is produced by Walid Raad. He lives and works in New York, where he is curr ...

(2008),

(2009), Wael Shawky (2011),

Marwan Marwan, Merwan or Marwen or Mervan () is an Arabic male given name derived from the word ''maruww'' () with the meaning of either minerals, 'flint(-stone)', 'quartz"' or 'hard stone of nearly pure silica'. However, the Arabic name for quartz is ' ...

(2009),

Yto Barrada Yto Barrada (born 1971) is a Franco-Moroccan multimedia visual artist living and working in Tangier, Morocco and New York City. Barrada cofounded the Cinémathèque de Tanger in 2006, leading a group of artists and filmmakers. Barrada also work ...

(2010),

Etel Adnan Etel Adnan (; 24 February 1925 – 14 November 2021) was a Lebanese-American poet, essayist, and visual artist. In 2003, Adnan was named "arguably the most celebrated and accomplished Arab American author writing today" by the academic journal '' ...

(2010), Mounira al Solh (2011),

Hassan Sharif Hassan Al Sharif (1 January 1951 – 18 September 2016) was an Emirati artist and prolific writer. He lived and worked in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. He is widely regarded as a central figure in contemporary and conceptual art in the region, oft ...

(2012), and Gabriel Kuri (2012). Her Beirut gallery has hosted diverse curatorial projects including a group show of young Egyptian artists "Out of Place"(2006), curated by William Wells of the Cairo

Townhouse Gallery The Townhouse Gallery was established in 1998 by William Wells as an independent, non-profit art space in Cairo, Egypt, with a goal of making contemporary arts accessible to all without compromising creative practice. The Townhouse supports arti ...

Catherine David Catherine David (born 19 September 1954) is a French art historian, curator and museum director. David was the first woman and the first non-German speaker to curate documenta X in Kassel, Germany (21 June – 28 September 1997). David was ...

’s "In the Middle of the Middle" (2008),

Bidoun ''Bidoun'' is a non-profit organization focused on art and culture from the Middle East and its diasporas. Bidoun was founded as a print publication and magazine in 2004 by Lisa Farjam, eventually expanding to online publishing and curatorial p ...

Magazine’s show "NOISE" (2009) by Negar Azimi and Babak Radboy, "Au Delà des Images (Beyond Images)" (2006) with works of the

Fond National d'Art Contemporain The Fonds national d'art contemporain (FNAC; National Foundation for Contemporary Art) is a public collection of contemporary art in France. It does not hold exhibitions but acquires and stores works of art that it loans to museums, cultural instit ...

, France, curated by Jean Marc Prévost & Akram Zaatari, and "HomeWorks" (2008), a recurring forum on Contemporary Art based in Beirut organized by

Christine Tohmé Christine Tohme () is a Lebanese curator and the founding director of Ashkal Alwan - The Lebanese Association for Plastic Arts. Since its establishment in 1993, Ashkal Alwan has been committed to contemporary artistic practice, production, researc ...

, director of

Ashkal Alwan Ashkal Alwan (), The Lebanese Association for Plastic Arts is an association promoting and producing contemporary art practices in Lebanon. History Ashkal Alwan was founded in 1994 by Christine Tohmé (Curator), Marwan Rechmaoui (Artist), Rania ...

. Sfeir-Semler Gallery also represents established European and American artists including Robert Barry, Elger Esser,

Ian Hamilton Finlay Ian Hamilton Finlay (28 October 1925 – 27 March 2006) was a Scottish poet, writer, artist and gardener. Life Finlay was born in Nassau, Bahamas, to James Hamilton Finlay and his wife, Annie Pettigrew, both of Scots descent. He was educa ...

Hans Haacke Hans Haacke (born August 12, 1936) is a German-born artist who lives and works in New York City. Haacke is considered a "leading exponent" of institutional critique, and is considered to be the most harsh and consistent critic of museums among t ...

, Günter Haese,

Sol LeWitt Solomon "Sol" LeWitt (September 9, 1928 – April 8, 2007) was an American artist linked to various movements, including conceptual art and minimalism. LeWitt came to fame in the late 1960s with his wall drawings and "structures" (a term he pref ...

, Timo Nasseri, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Ulrich Rückriem, Christine Streuli, therefore nurturing a cross-cultural link between Western and Middle Eastern contemporary art practices.

Artists

References

Further references

*''Beirut Gallery Weathers War'', Artnet News, 27 July 200

*Kaelen Wilson-Goldie: ''Less Roses'', ''The Daily Star'', August 2007 *Lucy Fielder, ''Make some NOISE, Sfeir’s show challenges the idea of art galleries'', Now Lebanon, 16 December 2009, s.p. *Andrée Sfeir-Semler interviewed by Andrew Mc Clintock, SFAQ International Arts and Culture, Issue.9, May 2012, pp. 52–5

*Kaelen Wilson-Goldie: ''Mundane objects in a disemboweled space'', ''The Daily Star'', 17 August 2012 {{DEFAULTSORT:Sfeir-Semler, Andree Lebanese art dealers 1953 births Living people Businesspeople from Beirut Lebanese art collectors Lebanese diaspora Lebanese emigrants to Germany American University of Beirut alumni