Najla El Zein (born 1983) is a Lebanese artist and designer.

Biography

Najla El Zein was born in Beirut in 1983.^[1][2] She was raised in Paris, where she moved at the age of two.^[3] She studied interior architecture and product design at the École Camondo school of art in Paris.^[4]

In 2019 El Zein was commissioned by the Qatar Museums Authority to design Us, Her, Him, a limestone sculpture located in Flag Plaza^[5][6][7] which was completed in 2022.^[8] Also in 2019, El Zein staged her first solo show, Transitions, at the Friedman Benda Gallery in New York.^[9][10] The title of the exhibition and the pieces she created were inspired by her experience of the "emotional and physical transformation" of pregnancy.^[11][12][13]

Following the 2020 Beirut explosion, El Zein produced a series of sculptural pieces titled 6.07, the name being a reference to the time of the blast. The proceeds from the sale of the pieces were donated to a local NGO called Beb w’ Shebbek.^[14][15]

Her work has been exhibited at and acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum,^[3] London, and the Dallas Museum of Art, TX. In 2023 her work was included in the exhibition Mirror Mirror: Reflections on Design at Chatsworth at Chatsworth House, curated by Glenn Adamson.^{[16][17][18][19]}

She has studios in Amsterdam and Beirut.^{[3][16][20][21]}

References

External links

• Official site