Andrée Sfeir-Semler (born 1953 in Beirut, Lebanon) is a German-Lebanese art historian and gallery owner. Her Sfeir-Semler Gallery has branches in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

and

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

, and both locations represent artists working in the field of conceptual art with a preference on political subjects. Since 2003, Sfeir-Semler Gallery has focused on contemporary art from the

Arab World The Arab world ( '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, comprises a large group of countries, mainly located in West Asia and North Africa. While the majority of people in ...

Early life and education

Sfeir-Semler studied fine art at the

American University of Beirut The American University of Beirut (AUB; ) is a private, non-sectarian, and independent university chartered in New York with its main campus in Beirut, Lebanon. AUB is governed by a private, autonomous board of trustees and offers programs le ...

and filmmaking at the "Centre for cinema and television" in Beirut. In 1975 she was awarded a

Fulbright Program The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...

Scholarship and a DAAD German Academic Exchange Service scholarship to continue her studies as a filmmaker. She opted for the latter. She continued her studies at the universities of Munich, Bielefeld with Wolfgang Mager & Juergen Kocka and at the Sorbonne with

Pierre Bourdieu Pierre Bourdieu (, ; ; ; 1 August 1930 – 23 January 2002) was a French sociologist and public intellectual. Bourdieu's contributions to the sociology of education, the theory of sociology, and sociology of aesthetics have achieved wide influ ...

. She finished her PhD in 1980 with a thesis entitled "Die Maler am Pariser Salon: 1791 - 1880" (English: ''The Painters at the Paris Salon: 1791-1880''). The book is a computer-based social history of the 19th-century French art scene.

Gallery

In 1985 Sfeir-Semler opened her first gallery in Kiel, Germany. In 1998, she moved the gallery to Hamburg, where the German branch of Sfeir-Semler Gallery is still based. Beirut gallery: "After 20 years running a top-notch blue-chip contemporary gallery for minimal and conceptual art in Hamburg, owner Andree Sfeir-Semler decided she wanted to expand her business and return to the city she left behind in 1975." In April 2005, on the 20th anniversary of the opening of her German gallery, she made her Beirut exhibition début with "Flight 405", a group show of work by The Atlas Group/Walid Raad, Elger Esser,

Alfredo Jaar Alfredo Jaar (; ; born 1956) is a Chilean-born artist, architect, photographer and filmmaker who lives in New York City. He is mostly known as an installation artist, often incorporating photography and covering socio-political issues and war—th ...

, Emily Jacir, Amal al Kenawy, Till Krause, Hiroyuki Masuyama,

Michelangelo Pistoletto Michelangelo Pistoletto (born 23 June 1933) is an Italian painter, action and object artist, and art theorist. Pistoletto is acknowledged as one of the main representatives of the Italian Arte Povera. His work mainly deals with the subject mat ...

, and Akram Zaatari. Since then she has mounted numerous exhibitions including the first one-person-shows in the Middle East by Walid Raad (2008), Akram Zaatari (2009), Wael Shawky (2011), Marwan (2009), Yto Barrada (2010), Etel Adnan (2010), Mounira al Solh (2011), Hassan Sharif (2012), and Gabriel Kuri (2012). Her Beirut gallery has hosted diverse curatorial projects including a group show of young Egyptian artists "Out of Place"(2006), curated by William Wells of the Cairo Townhouse Gallery, Catherine David’s "In the Middle of the Middle" (2008), Bidoun Magazine’s show "NOISE" (2009) by Negar Azimi and Babak Radboy, "Au Delà des Images (Beyond Images)" (2006) with works of the Fond National d'Art Contemporain, France, curated by Jean Marc Prévost & Akram Zaatari, and "HomeWorks" (2008), a recurring forum on Contemporary Art based in Beirut organized by Christine Tohmé, director of Ashkal Alwan. Sfeir-Semler Gallery also represents established European and American artists including Robert Barry, Elger Esser,

Ian Hamilton Finlay Ian Hamilton Finlay (28 October 1925 – 27 March 2006) was a Scottish poet, writer, artist and gardener. Life Finlay was born in Nassau, Bahamas, to James Hamilton Finlay and his wife, Annie Pettigrew, both of Scots descent. He was educa ...

Hans Haacke Hans Haacke (born August 12, 1936) is a German-born artist who lives and works in New York City. Haacke is considered a "leading exponent" of institutional critique, and is considered to be the most harsh and consistent critic of museums among t ...

, Günter Haese,

Sol LeWitt Solomon "Sol" LeWitt (September 9, 1928 – April 8, 2007) was an American artist linked to various movements, including conceptual art and minimalism. LeWitt came to fame in the late 1960s with his wall drawings and "structures" (a term he pref ...

, Timo Nasseri, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Ulrich Rückriem, Christine Streuli, therefore nurturing a cross-cultural link between Western and Middle Eastern contemporary art practices.

Artists

References

Further references

*''Beirut Gallery Weathers War'', Artnet News, 27 July 200

*Kaelen Wilson-Goldie: ''Less Roses'', ''The Daily Star'', August 2007 *Lucy Fielder, ''Make some NOISE, Sfeir’s show challenges the idea of art galleries'', Now Lebanon, 16 December 2009, s.p. *Andrée Sfeir-Semler interviewed by Andrew Mc Clintock, SFAQ International Arts and Culture, Issue.9, May 2012, pp. 52–5

*Kaelen Wilson-Goldie: ''Mundane objects in a disemboweled space'', ''The Daily Star'', 17 August 2012 {{DEFAULTSORT:Sfeir-Semler, Andree Lebanese art dealers 1953 births Living people Businesspeople from Beirut Lebanese art collectors Lebanese diaspora Lebanese emigrants to Germany American University of Beirut alumni