Born in Baissour, Lebanon, in 1992, Ribal Molaeb moved to Salzburg, Austria, at the age of 17 to study at the Mozarteum University Salzburg. He later moved to Vienna to study at the University for Music and Performing Arts, where he received his Master’s degree in Arts with distinction.
Ribal was appointed as the artistic director of ”SUMITO’’ Art and Music Association in Switzerland.
In Lebanon, he founded the ”Molaeb Festival for Chamber Music and Fine Arts”.
Having spent eight years living and studying music in Vienna, Ribal’s musical education profoundly shaped his artistic vision as a colorist. Parallel to his practice as a painter, Ribal performed as a violist at international classical music festivals and concert halls worldwide. This unique journey has contributed significantly to his development as a deeply nuanced artist.
Ribal’s paintings have been exhibited with prominent galleries and institutions in cities such as New York, Tokyo, Fukuoka, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Singapore, Amman, Beirut, London, Paris, Antibes, Marseille, Madrid, Amsterdam, Geneva, Basel and Zürich.
A painting by Ribal is in the collection of the Museum of Arab Art in Paris (IMA)
Ribal lives and works in Zürich, Switzerland and is represented by Saleh Barakat Gallery in Lebanon, Mizoe Art Gallery in Japan and Galerie Esther Woerdehoff in Paris.
About His Work:
Ribal Molaeb’s paintings explores the threshold where landscape becomes memory and light becomes emotion. Through luminous fields of colour and a restrained visual language, he distills nature into its essential rhythms, evoking silence, contemplation, and inner stillness. Informed by both the legacy of Lebanese modernism and the structural sensibility of classical music, his compositions unfold with the cadence of a musical score. Rather than depicting a specific place, his works invite the viewer into an atmosphere where colour, light, and space become vehicles for meditation. Each canvas offers a quiet encounter with the sublime, revealing landscape as an enduring state of being rather than a physical location.
Ribal Molaeb:
Born 1992 in Lebanon
Lives and works in Zürich, Switzerland
University:
2010 – 2011 Universität Mozarteum Salzburg
2011 – 2018 University for Music and Performing Arts, Vienna (Bachelor and Masters)
Solo Exhibitions:
2026 – Galerie Esther Woerdehoff, Paris
2026 – Helai Art Gallery, Zürich, Switzerland
2026 – Consulat général du Liban à Marseille
2026 – ZKO Haus, Zürich
2025 – Saleh Barakat Gallery, Beirut
2025 – Artifact, New York
2025 – Mizoe Art Gallery, Fukuoka, Japan
2025 – Mizoe Art Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2025 – Espace D’exposition Les Arcades, Antibes, France
2025 – Zko Hause, Zürich, Switzerland
2024 – Galerie Katapult, Basel, Switzerland
2024 – Volta, Basel Art Fair, Switzerland
2024 – Universal Artist Club, Zug, Switzerland
2023 – Orient Gallery, Amman, Jordan
2023 – Saadiyat, Abu Dhabi UAE
2022 – Galerie Esther Woerdehoff, Geneva, Switzerland
2021 – Galerie Claude Lemand, Paris, France
2021 – Zko Gallery, Zürich, Switzerland
2021 – Galerie Agénor, Zürich, Switzerland
2021 – Galerie Janine Rubeiz, Beirut, Lebanon
2019 – Sumito Kulturverein, Switzerland
Group Exhibitions:
2026 – Helai Art Gallery, Zürich, Switzerland
2026 – Saleh Barakat Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon
2026 – Agial Art Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon
2025 – Galleria Sacchetti, Ascona, Switzerland
2025 – Volta, Basel Art Fair, Switzerland
2025 – Galerie Katapult, Basel, Switzerland
2025 – Salwa Zeidan Gallery, Dubai, Uae
2025 – Monat Gallery, Madrid, Spain
2024 – Breath Of Summer / Saleh Barakat Gallery, Lebanon
2024 – Beiteddine Art Festival / Landscapes Belonging / Saleh Barakat
2024 – Ethan Cohen Gallery / Arthaus Basel, Switzerland
2024 – Agial Art Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon
2024 – Khawla Art Gallery, Dubai, Uae
2023 – Lebanon Untitled, Cromwell Place, London, Uk
2023 – Italian Embassy, Lebanon
2023 – Beiteddine Art Festival / Abstraction Actuelle / Saleh Barakat
2022 – Artscoops, Beirut, Lebanon
2022 – Treasures From The Middle East, Abu Dhabi, Uae
2022 – Galerie Agénor, Zürich, Switzerland
2021 – Galerie Lalalande, Paris, France
2021 – Artb, Dubai, Uae
2020 – Galerie Janine Rubeiz, Beirut, Lebanon
2019 – Selections Art, Dubai, Uae
2018 – Me Art Gallery, Amsterdam, Holland
2017 – Art & Poster Gallery, Zürich, Switzerland
Art Fairs:
2026 – Art Dubai, Saleh Barakat Gallery
2026 – Art Paris, Galerie Esther Woerdehoff, Paris
2025 – Contemporary Istanbul, Galerie Esther Woerdehoff, Paris
2025 – Fukuoka Art Fair, Mizoe Art Gallery, Japan
2025 – Volta, Basel Art Fair, Switzerland
2024 – (Solo) Volta, Basel Art Fair, Switzerland
2022 – Art Paris, Galerie Esther Woerdehoff, Paris
2022 – Menart Paris, Galerie Esther Woerdehoff, Paris
Artist Residency:
2026 – Villa Fontaine, Antibes, France
Artist Talks:
2025 – Mizoe Art Gallery, Fukuoka, Japan
Museum Collection:
Modern Arab Art Museum, Paris (Ima)
Art Collections:
Mizoe Collection, Japan
CCAA Collection, Switzerland
HH Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, UAE
Rania Daniel Collection, New York
The Dubai Collection
Salamoun Collection
Habbal Collection
Karabajakian Collection
Private collections: Switzerland, France, USA, Germany, UK, Japan, Russia
“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
