Relaxed and looking like someone who knows a joke, George Merheb sits among his latest creations. After graduating in Fine Arts at the Lebanese University he pursued studies in restoration of historical monuments and frescoes in Italy. Since 88 his time has been shared between this specialty and painting. Though contemporary, his subject matter is treated in what he describes himself as a "frescoic" way, where the use of earth tones, whites and greys with few colour accents give an antiquated look that often leads the viewer to see a link with his restoration work. Merheb himself denies that this is conscious: "I've been told that my work pulls me towards patina and varied textures, but I don't feel it".

It is a fact that Merheb revels in visuals as opposed to attempting to achieve a look. In a way, his approach is the reverse of what is usually observed in art: instead of sticking to a signature style or technique, he reuses a subject matter -- a number of iconic visuals that are continuously reincarnated through widely different styles and media. These objects: faces, amphora, tulips, chess pieces, half moons, fish, crowns, etc, are chosen not to convey a message but purely for their aesthetic value, although the artist confesses a fascination for chess pieces, an innocent façade hiding devious scheming. And though the final result of their combination seems to speak, it is through the viewer's own relationship to this panoply of icons. The message of the artist, if it can be called that, remains minimal.

The current exhibit for instance was sparked from the idea that newspaper could serve as a "speaking" canvas. "The biggest concentration of blabla can be found in the papers," Merheb explains. "So it occurred to me that I could paint expressionless faces than could speak through the newspaper showing through the layers of paint." The technique that developed from this concept, that defines this exhibit, was to paste pages of newspapers onto a wooden support, then using the papers as a canvas for "acrylics, watercolor, pastel, even coloured pencils – anything I could get my hands on." The treatment of these very simple shapes with complex colour textures, underlain by the faint yet visible printed text, gives considerable interest to the paintings. Merheb being interested in the work's aesthetics above everything, he spends a great deal of time designing the compositions and choosing his colours and media. "A painting includes everything: composition, drawing and colours. The composition is the most controllable, colour is the least."

The love of the shapes for their own sake is betrayed by the use of frames in the compositions, that act so many hints that we should look at each icon as something beautiful in its own right, before appreciating it within a composition of many similar forms. The frames create independent cells that move around from one work to the other; it's a playful process of assembling and reassembling very reminiscent of construction games. The artist himself does not hesitate to state: "It's a pleasure -- no, more: when I work I feel like I'm playing with the shapes, the colours, everything. It's my favourite hobby!"

One wall of the gallery offers a different use of frames and independent cells: many small works are put together to create a large composition. "I felt like making a large mural with my recurring subjects, that I called 'Flashback'. They work together but stand alone as well."

One of the paintings, that despite its simplicity obviously represents the Last Supper, seems to deny the artist's statement of "no philosophy included" until he explains that the subject matter is of little importance: it's only because we know what it represents that it seems to have a special meaning. Hence the artist titled it "Autrement dit" ("said differently"), expressing the fact that it is an approach that one doesn't see every day. He adds: "In general for this subject we follow rules of representation established centuries ago. I only kept the minimum – the central figure and the 12 apostles." Many of the other works on display show the same characteristic titles that rarely refer to specific themes but rather to a way of expression: A propos ("by the way"), Blabla, Editorial etc.

"It's the first time I work on a support that's neither canvas nor board", says Merheb, but to him it is but one step in a progression where some stages are more worthy of emphasis than others. "Those are the ones I exhibit. Every artist has a lot of n'importe quoi in his or her work." Yet he doesn't believe that finding inspiration is difficult; on the contrary, it is inevitable: "I believe artists have much more ways of expression than is commonly believed. They don't have to seriously sweat it to come out with an expression; it comes easily when you're holding the right end."

Article by Joumana Medlej