Christine Safa (b. 1994 Chesnay, France) paints life in motion, rendering sites traversed as a series metaphysical notations felt and collected by the body. The French-Lebanese artist frequently moves across the Mediterranean, between her home and studio outside of Paris and her family’s native city of Beirut. She captures the landscapes she passes through by distilling them into interconnected fragments, melding the intimacy of the land and the body, so that shoulders become mountains, or the horizon blends with her subject’s profile. In Safa’s words:

“I see my paintings as tributes, fragments of memories, that which remains. That’s what I paint, what’s left. As I paint, I give birth to the silhouette, the shape of the ruins of memories which both greet and are the victims of time; which for me means my experience of these interior landscapes.”

In 2021 she was invited by Etel Adnan to participate in a group exhibition at Levy Gorvy Gallery in Paris. Solo exhibitions include Frac Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, France, 2022; Galerie Lelong & Co., Paris, France, 2022; and ICA Milano, Milan, Italy, 2022. In 2024, Safa was awarded the 13th Jean Francois Prat Prize.