Lot 40: ZENA EL KHALIL (Lebanese, born 1976) Your Crown on my Breast

Zena El Khalil (Lebanese, born 1976)
Your Crown on my Breast
mixed media in plexiglass case
executed in 2008
168 x 70cm (66 1/8 x 27 9/16in).
FOOTNOTES
Note:
50% Of the Hammer Price for the present work will be donated to the British Lebanese Associations Scholarship Fund

Exhibited:
London, Flawless Gallery, Zena El Khalil: Mabe one day Beirut will love me back..., 2008

Zena El Khalil was born in London in 1976. She spent her childhood in Nigeria and returned to England as a teenager. She graduated in graphic design from the American University of Beirut in Lebanon and obtained a Master in Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts of New York in 2002. In 2006, she wrote a daily blog (beirutupdate.blogspot.com) during the thirty-three days of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon.

At the time, Zena reported there the impact it had on her and her friends and family. These "posts" were quickly quoted and published by medias such as CNN, BBC, the Guardian, Der Spiegel Online, the Nation and Counterpunch and Electronic Intifada.

Her work has been shown as part of group exhibitions in the United States, Europe, Africa, Australia as well as the Middle East and in solo shows in London, Munich and Beirut. In 2008 she published a biography entitled 'Beirut I Love You'. There, she primarily explored her relationship with the Lebanese capital where she currently lives and works.