Working across different media such as acrylics, watercolour and charcoal, Ehsan Antabi is versatile in both format and style. From highly detailed landscapes to more expressive renderings, his work has a dramatic emotive quality seen through his use of light, swirling waves in the sea and clouds in the sky. Occasionally, he overlays symbols or geometry onto his paintings to create a layer of rationalism, absurdity or philosophy.
Born in Aleppo, Ehsan Antabi (1945) graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Damascus University in 1969; and received a higher degree from the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs at the PSL Research University, Paris in 1975. He founded the Faculty of Arts at the Arab International University and chaired as the Dean from 2006–2013. A critically acclaimed graphic designer, Antabi’s posters have been shown at international biennials and festivals while his logos and book covers grace major institutions and publications nationally. In a co-commission with artist Mustafa Ali, they designed the stained glass that was inserted into an older monument in Damascus called the Damascene Sword by Abdul Qadir Anranout.
Antabi has participated in group exhibitions in Poland, the Czech Republic, Finland, the US, Italy, Denmark, the UAE, Slovakia, Kuwait, Lebanon and Syria at venues such as the Sharjah Museum, Warsaw Biennale and Venice Biennale. His work can be found in the collections of the Syrian Ministry of Culture, National Museum in Damascus, Sharjah Museum, Henry Langlois Museum, Paris; Denmark Poster Museum, Lahti Museum, Finland; and within private collections.