Zeina El-Hoss, Office of Communications, communications@aub.edu.lb
On October 29, 2025, the American University of Beirut (AUB)'s Art Galleries launched the third chapter of its ongoing exhibition Open Walls: The AUB Art Collection, highlighting the advantages of collaboration within the broader art world. Held at the AUB Byblos Bank Art Gallery in Ada Dodge Hall, Open Walls invites artists from various epochs, styles, schools, traditions, and generations to connect.
Inspired by the “open walls" method used in agriculture as a support structure for growing plants, the exhibition offers a space of encounter for both budding and well-established artists and art foundations. In every iteration, Open Walls has featured artworks from AUB's permanent collection, arranged on brick walls to suggest permanence. The collection, which traces back to the early 1970s, includes works from world-renowned Lebanese painters such as Khalil Saleeby (1870–1928), Saliba Douaihy (1915–1994), and Omar Ounsi (1901–1969), among others. In contrast, hosted artworks are installed on large wood planks, symbolically bringing a “piece" of the artist's gallery into the exhibition to participate in the dialogue. Marked with variable colors or codes of display, this flexible set-up welcomes change and renewable interactions.
The exhibition is not centered on showcasing the artworks, as Professor Octavian Esanu, director and curator of the AUB Art Galleries, explains. “The idea of the exhibition is communicating with others, establishing dialogue, learning from each other, and knowing how each one deals with their problems," he says.
In Chapter 3, Open Walls is sparking conversations between the arts and the sciences by introducing three new walls. The first wall is hosted by the Saloua Raouda Choucair Foundation's Tension Series and was curated by Marwa Saad, a master's student in art history and curating at AUB, who had the opportunity to move beyond theoretical study and experience curation in practice. “Working closely with the artist's pieces allowed me to understand how her sculptures embody a dialogue between art and science," Marwa says. “This experience also reshaped how I understand curating itself; curating not merely as arranging objects in space, but as creating a framework through which viewers can access an artist's way of thinking." While working on her wall, Marwa was assisted by master's student Ahmad Abu Zayyad.
For the second wall, Lebanese artist Joanne Aoun was invited by the AUB Archaeological Museum to explore archeology's relationship to the present. Aoun brought ancient history to life through 3D prints and holographic images of Tanagra figurines. Finally, the third wall hosted the Kamal A. Shair Central Research Science Laboratory (CRSL) at AUB. Responding to the AUB Art Galleries' invitation to collaborate, the laboratory conducted chemical analyses of the art collection on display. The scientists used the Bruker S1 Titan Handheld XRF Elemental Analyzer, a scanner purchased by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) at AUB and the Beirut Museum of Arts (BEMA) to examine the collection. The investigation revealed significant changes in the composition of color pigments and palettes used by artists between the late 19th and late 20th centuries, indicating that shifts in artistic style were closely linked to changes in the chemistry of art materials.
Drawing on AUB's historical, cultural, and academic role in cultivating knowledge about art, Professor Esanu asserts that the main inspiration behind Open Walls is to encourage communication between AUB and other institutions in Lebanon and beyond. He hopes that in the upcoming iterations of Open Walls more students from the Fine Arts and Curating graduate program would take on the role of curators, engaging seasoned and lesser-known artists and shaping dialogue that would only be possible through collaboration.
Open Walls: The AUB Art Collection – Chapter 3 is open to the public at the AUB Byblos Bank Art Gallery, Ada Dodge Hall, AUB Campus, Monday to Friday 12:00–6:00 pm (excluding official and AUB holidays) until March 6, 2026 .