The fast-rising Beirut gallery Marfa’ Projects turns ten this year, an achievement that has at times seemed far from a given. “A decade isn’t much in a gallery’s life,” says its founder Joumana Asseily. “But with everything we’ve been through, I never imagined we’d get here.”
Asseilly is referring to the staggering challenges that she has faced since opening her space in the Lebanese capital’s port (or marfa’ in Arabic). These include widespread civil protests, the country’s economic crisis and, most devastatingly, the Port of Beirut explosion in 2020, which killed more than 200 people and destroyed much of the surrounding neighbourhood, including the gallery’s premises. “Everything was shattered,” she says. “But starting again wasn’t simply about creating new walls. It was learning how to continue in a completely new context.”
In a testament to her will, and the resilience of the Beirut art scene, less than a year later Asseily rebuilt her gallery. She credits her global network of fellow dealers for inspiring her, in part, to do so. “In 2020, a large group of gallerists were organising weekly shows in their space, which they shared virtually, when the world couldn’t travel,” she says. Prompted to do the same, Asseily reopened her gallery with a group show on the theme of water. Asseily’s peers also proved a “beautiful source of support” during Israel’s escalated bombardment of Lebanon in 2024, offering her office spaces in various cities and inviting Marfa’ Projects to take part in gallery-share exhibitions like Condo in London.
Alvaro Barrington, ATAR S1 October 2024 (2024)
© Alvaro Barrington, courtesy of Sadie Coles HQ
Fittingly, this dealer network is central to the group show Asseily has staged to mark the ten-year anniversary of Marfa’. Fellow galleries have consigned works for the exhibition. Among them are Sadie Coles HQ, which has sent two works by Alvaro Barrington—a steel drum and leather sculpture and a sunset painting on burlap; Experimenter, which has sent a drawing on clay-coated paper by Ayesha Sultana; and Emalin, which has consigned a sculpture by Daiga Grantina.
These join works by Marfa’ Projects artists, including two photographic prints by Mohamad Abdouni and a zinc weathervane sculpture by Stéphanie Saadé, placed outside the gallery, which references the Lebanese Civil War (1975-90). Both artists won prizes at leading art fairs last year—Abdouni the Lafayette Anticipations Prize at Art Basel Paris and Saadé the Fluxus Prize at Frieze London—major milestones for the gallery that helped increase its visibility, Asseily says.
Stéphanie Saadé, Losing North (2018)
Courtesy of Marfa’ Projects
Asseily wishes for the anniversary show to feel “open, and celebrate everyone that has played a part in the gallery’s life”. She would have included even more artists, but the logistics of organising a show with dozens of international deliveries has proved “slightly overwhelming”, with shipping to Beirut still tricky.
For the evening’s celebrations, Asseily will throw a block party, for which her friend Jana Saleh, a sound artist and fellow Beiruti, is flying in from London to DJ. The food, on the other hand, will be as locally sourced as it can get. Marfa’ is located next to a bakery, Foron Samir, that specialises in man’ousheh, a Levantine flatbread topped with za’tar which is popular with the customs officials who work in the port. Like Asseily, Samir was one of the first to re-open his business following the blast, and for the party he will stay open late into the night to feed the revellers. “Foron and I re-opened together, neither of us stopped working despite the setbacks,” Asseily says.
Looking to the future, Asseily says her gallery will always be based in Beirut, where it is more meaningful to have a presence. “The city is part of our identity. It hasn’t stopped, despite everything. Even during the war,” she says. “If you stop, you lose. You have to keep going.”
• 10 Years of Marfa’, Marfa’ Projects, Beirut, 7 November to 20 February 2026
