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An Article by MR (896 words, 5 min. read)
On December fourth, Saleh Barakat Gallery opened its vast and serene space to a body of work that breathes in rhythm with the sky. Ribal Molaeb, painter and classical musician, unveiled a luminous collection that radiates with a meditative force. Each canvas holds the memory of a horizon, the quiet passage from one hour to the next, and the inner soundscape of an artist who listens deeply to the world. His paintings rise like dawn and settle like dusk, offering a moment of inward stillness to every viewer who enters.
The Art of Air and Light
Molaeb’s paintings exist in a realm where color becomes breath. The gradations of orange, rose, blue, and pale gold stretch across the canvas with a softness that evokes the tender unfolding of the day. He paints the atmosphere itself, the invisible pulse of the sky above Baissour, the village where he grew up and where the horizon was always wide enough to shape his imagination. His brush captures movement even in stillness, for his skies speak the language of transition, a continuous becoming.
In his own words, he describes his work as “sea wonder, the sound of the sky, the mountains‘ spirit—musical, poetic, beyond time and place.” These words echo through every painting, giving the exhibition an inner voice that vibrates like a note held in the air.
The Sound of Color
A classical musician at heart, Molaeb carries the discipline and emotion of music into his visual art. His compositions follow the structure of symphonies, with crescendos of light and soft diminuendos of color that guide the gaze gently across the surface. The viewer experiences the canvases as visual scores, written not with notes but with hues that rise and fall.
This harmony between sound and sight forms the essence of the exhibition. The paintings illuminate the gallery with a quiet resonance, each one a poetic meditation that opens into a vast internal landscape. They invite contemplation, a pause, a breath, an opportunity to listen to silence.
Saleh Barakat’s Curatorial Embrace
The exhibition unfolds within the generous, elegant architecture of Saleh Barakat Gallery, a space that honors scale, light, and clarity. The gallery’s wide walls and precise lighting elevate Molaeb’s large canvases, offering them room to expand and glow.
Through a sensitive curatorial vision, Saleh Barakat arranged the works in sequences that reveal their musicality. Warmer paintings contrast across the room with cooler ones, while central pieces anchor the space with powerful gradients of blue and gold. This arrangement creates a visual rhythm, an experience that feels both grounded and fluid, much like the artist’s own poetic approach to light.
The gallery does not simply display the paintings; It completes them by offering an atmosphere where they can breathe freely. The space becomes an extension of the horizon line that Ribal Molaeb paints with such devotion.
In this line lies the soul of A Breath. The interruption, that pause between what was and what will be, is where meaning resides. It is the same pause between two breaths, where life gathers itself quietly before continuing.
A Path Toward Illumination
Molaeb writes, “seeking the soul‘s rest, the path to light, becoming light.” This line holds the essence of the entire exhibition. His works guide the viewer toward a sense of elevation, a gentle transcendence made of color, silence, and air.
The paintings open windows inside the mind. They remember the first light of morning, the fading glow of evening, and the way the world feels when time slows and vision deepens. In this exhibition, light becomes both subject and destination, a state of being rather than a phenomenon.
A Life Between Mountains and Music
Born in Baissour in 1992, Ribal Molaeb grew up surrounded by nature and art. His studies in Salzburg and Vienna shaped his musical mastery, while his years of painting alongside his father, the celebrated artist Jamil Molaeb, nurtured his visual language. He now lives and works in Zürich, yet the mountains of Lebanon remain present in every horizon he paints.
His international journey continues to expand, with exhibitions across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, and acquisitions such as his recent addition to the collection of the Museum of Arab Art in Paris. Yet despite this global path, his paintings remain intimate, grounded in personal observation and the quiet poetry of the sky.
The Exhibition as an Experience
Standing before these paintings feels like standing before a landscape that cannot be named yet feels deeply familiar. The colors rise in soft waves, the brushstrokes carry the memory of movement, and the compositions open onto a space that offers peace to the eye and calm to the spirit.
The exhibition forms a sanctuary of light. It becomes not only a presentation of artworks but also a lived experience, a mesmerizing moment of alignment between the viewer, the artist, and the natural world he translates with such sensitivity.
A Celebration of Radiance
Ribal Molaeb’s exhibition at Saleh Barakat Gallery honors the beauty of air, the grace of color, and the profound simplicity of looking. Through his paintings, he shares a luminous invitation: to rise, to soften, to breathe, to see. His works become living meditations.
In this exhibition, Ribal Molaeb offers light not as metaphor but as presence—an element to enter, to feel, and to carry within.
