Mona Trad Dabaji graduated from the American University of Beirut, just as the civil war broke out in Lebanon. She currently lives and works in Beirut, where she has been teaching painting since 1993. Mona Trad Dabaji has exhibited in Lebanon, France, Jordan, the United States and The United Arab Emirates.

Her first milestone in her career was in 1992, when she held her first exhibition « Beyrouth, ville fantôme » (Beirut, The Phantom City), portraying the shattered city center of Beirut…

Ever since, all her work revolves around one recurrent theme: Lebanon, its traditions and culture. Throughout her personages, mainly Lebanese women, she succeeded to convey with great precision this multifaceted and complex culture.

Determined to wipe out the last shadows of war, she collects old doors & windows – saved from demolition wreckages – and uses them as a support for her paintings, granting them a chance of rebirth in new interiors.

 Her exhibition in 2008, « My land is not for sale », confirms even more her constant allegiance to this devastated land of hers as well as her persistent fight against the cruel fatality of destruction that seems to be hitting continuously & inexorably Lebanon…

MA DECLARATION: MONA TRAD DABAJI
(Rencontre - l'Agenda culturel, 2022)