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Contemporary Paintings Rooted in Memory
Paintings inspired by memory, place, and everyday rituals. Contemporary art rooted in the Levant, nostalgia, and the sacred in the mundane.
The Artist
I'm a Lebanese artist based in Beirut. By day I work as a technical consultant in fintech. By evening the laptop closes, the music starts, and my studio becomes my favourite place to disappear for a few hours.
I paint Lebanon, not exactly as it was, but how it felt. The smell of rain on Beirut's streets, family gathered around a table, the snacks we grew up eating. The little things that quietly become part of who we are.
Art became the balance I didn't know I needed.
Read my story →New Series Coming Soon
Hollywood's most iconic scenes, premiering at home.
Home Premiere reimagines iconic Hollywood scenes through a Lebanese lens: the same frame, filled with what we actually grew up on. Each piece is a small correction, a memory inserted back into a scene that never had room for it. This collection is currently in progress.
Piece I
Piece II
Piece III
About me
Most mornings you'll find me behind a laptop, headphones on, working as a technical consultant in fintech.
By evening, everything changes.
The laptop closes, music starts playing, paint ends up on my hands (and usually everywhere else), and my studio becomes my favourite place to disappear for a few hours.
Painting was never supposed to become my career. It simply became the place where I felt most like myself.
Art became the balance I didn't know I needed.
I've always loved making things.
As a kid, I'd spend hours drawing, building little projects, or noticing tiny details that most people walked right past.
Then life happened.
The Beirut explosion.
Covid.
An economic crisis.
Graduating into uncertainty.
Like so many Lebanese, I was trying to understand a world that suddenly felt unfamiliar.
Painting slowly became my way back.
I bought bigger canvases.
Turned on music.
Lost track of time.
For the first time in a long while, everything became quiet. I wasn't painting to create beautiful artwork. I was simply trying to make sense of everything around me.
Painting became the one place where everything slowed down.
People often ask why Lebanon appears in so much of my work.
The answer is simple.
It's home.
It's the smell of rain on Beirut's streets. Family gathered around a table. Backgammon games that somehow last for hours.
Old cafés.
Balconies.
The snacks we grew up eating.
The little things that quietly become part of who we are.
As cities change and traditions slowly disappear, I find myself wanting to hold onto these moments before they become memories.
Painting is how I do that.
Some paintings begin with a memory.
Others begin with a conversation. An old family photograph. A walk through Beirut. Or something so ordinary that most people wouldn't notice it twice.
Lately I've been asking myself a different question.
What if some of our favourite films had happened in Lebanon?
That's where my latest collection began. Taking familiar movie scenes and quietly replacing them with Lebanese traditions, food, objects, and memories.
Because nostalgia isn't only found in the past. Sometimes it's created by seeing something familiar in a completely new way.
I work almost entirely with acrylic.
I love building texture by hand, layering paint until every surface feels like it has lived a little.
Many of my paintings include small details that Lebanese viewers recognize instantly.
A snack.
A building.
A game.
A coffee cup.
Tiny references that quietly tell a much bigger story.
Whether I'm painting an old Beirut building or imagining a Hollywood scene in Lebanon, I'm always chasing the same feeling.
Not accuracy. Belonging.
A feeling of comfort. A feeling of home.
I don't paint to recreate the past exactly as it was. Memories are never that simple.
I paint to preserve the feeling they leave behind.
Every painting becomes a small archive of moments. Some are mine. Some might become yours.
If someone stands in front of one of my paintings years from now and suddenly remembers a place, a person, a meal, or a version of home they hadn't thought about in years… then I've painted exactly what I hoped to.
“I'm not trying to paint Lebanon as it was.
I'm trying to paint how it felt.”
Artworks
Commissions
Thank you for thinking of me for something one-of-a-kind, it truly means a lot. My hands are full with the current collection at the moment, so I've paused new commissions while I finish this body of work. Follow along on Instagram for a peek at what's coming, and I'll share the moment I reopen.
@myriamkay.art
Have a question in the meantime? Get in touch
Get in Touch
Whether you have a question about a work, a commission inquiry, or simply want to say hello. I'd love to hear from you.
Based in
Beirut, Lebanon
Response time
Within 2-3 business days
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