Art is not only beautiful; it can also spark dialogue and inform people about the world.
The Wilkes University Sordoni Art Gallery recently hosted a reception to celebrate its newest exhibit.
Lebanese American artist Helen Zughaib presented a lecture on her Syrian Migrations series of paintings. Syrian Migrations is on view at the gallery through Feb. 27.
Zughaib was born in Beirut, Lebanon in 1959. Her family left the country during the Lebanese Civil War in 1975.
Currently, Zughaib lives and works in Washington, D.C. She is best known for her gouache (opaque watercolor) paintings. Stylistically, she references geometric motifs found in traditional Islamic art, as well as American and European pop artists.
“As an Arab American, I hope…to… bring understanding and acceptance between the people of the Arab world and the West,” she states on her website.
Syrian Migrations chronicles the Syrian Civil War and its aftermath. In 2011, Syrians took part in anti-government protests inspired by the Arab Spring. The ruling Assad regime violently cracked down on these protests, arresting and ‘disappearing’ many people.
These events sparked the Syrian Civil War. Thousands died in bombings and chemical attacks. In addition, 14 million Syrians were displaced, and millions of refugees fled to the neighboring countries of Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan.
Others made dangerous overseas journeys to Europe.
In December 2024, the Assad regime collapsed after 50 years in power. Some Syrian refugees have begun returning home. Still, there is much work to be done. Many Syrian towns and villages were badly damaged or destroyed.
The new Syrian transitional government has also faced criticism of its own.
Painted from 2016 to 2025, the 58 pieces in Syrian Migrations document Syrian refugees’ experiences. Men, women, and children are portrayed living in refugee camps and traveling to foreign countries. The paintings particularly focus on Syrian women. These women care for their families and hold essential roles in refugee communities.
Syrian Migrations references Jacob Lawrence’s famous 1941 Migrations series. Lawrence was a prominent African American painter. Migrations’ 60 paintings depict the American Great Migration. In the first half of the twentieth century, millions of African Americans moved from the rural Jim Crow South to the urban Northeast and Midwest. These internal migrants traveled across the country to escape violent racial discrimination and to pursue new economic opportunities.
Both Migrations series are best understood as a group of paintings in chronological order. Each painting has a brief caption explaining its contents. When viewed as a group, the paintings tell a cohesive story. Both Lawrence and Zughaib also use flat shapes and a starkly vibrant color palette. The paintings’ visual beauty is a subversive contrast to their sometimes painful subject matter.
In the current moment, many American institutions are reluctant to display art with a perceived political message. Zughaib, who held a Social Practice Residency at the Kennedy Center from 2021 to 2024, discussed artists’ social responsibility.
“When people ask me if I’m a political artist, I think about what Picasso said about Guernica [the Spanish artist’s famous 1937 painting depicting the bombing of Guernica, Spain, during the Spanish Civil War].
“During WWII, a German officer asked Picasso about the painting, ‘Did you do that?’ Picasso responded, ‘No, you did.’ An artist’s job is to respond to what’s going on around us. I wish I had a magic wand to end all the suffering in the Middle East. But I can use my art to spread awareness.”