Between Music and Painting
Born in Baissour, Lebanon (1992), Ribal Molaeb moved to Salzburg at 17 to study at the Mozarteum and later earned his Master’s degree with distinction from the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna. Raised in the studio of his father, acclaimed artist Jamil Molaeb, he absorbed painting techniques early on in his life.
Ribal is the Artistic Director of the Swiss “SUMITO” Art & Music Association and the founder of the Molaeb Festival for Chamber Music and Fine Arts in Lebanon.
His work has shown in New York, Tokyo, Paris, London, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Beirut, Geneva, Basel, and Zürich, among other cities; a painting has been acquired by the Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris.
He lives and works in Zürich and is represented by Saleh Barakat Gallery (Lebanon) and Mizoe Art Gallery (Japan).
In his early age, Ribal Molaeb was personally trained by his father Jamil Molaeb.
Ribal Molaeb captures the serenity and immaculate beauty of nature: the sunrise viewed from one’s home, the initial moments of optimism at daybreak with its gradual spectrum of hues. A mystical, undulating mountain. An unobstructed horizon illuminated yet firmly rooted, devoid of concerns. A canvas void of any superfluous elements, offering nothing but tranquillity.
Ribal’s artistic focus lies in the interplay and equilibrium of lines, forms, and colour gradations, a trait influenced by his background in classical music and musical education in Vienna that shapes his approach to painting. There is a musical orientation in the compositional, harmonic and melodic aspects of his works.
“My painting is meditative: sea wonder, the sound of the sky, the mountains’ spirit— musical, poetic, beyond time and place. No political or social claim, a metaphysical, existential poem, a Sufi act in its depth, seeking the soul’s rest, the path to light, becoming light.”
Ribal Molaeb