Sunend.org presents a curated selection of works from Karine Wehbé’s volunteer-run project, Streetcolors Beirut @streetcolorsbeirut ). These pieces are direct, unfiltered expressions by refugee children displaced by instability, primarily from Syria, living in bare-bones social conditions without access to formal education.
The project enables self-understanding and empowerment as a healing process. Thanks to Wehbé's safe, non-interventional structure, many children have evolved from frozen styles of expression to much more complex compositions, thereby regaining a sense of agency.
To buy or read more about the artworks visit the link in bio. The majority of funds raised from the sale of the Streetcolors Beirut artworks will go directly to help sustain its work.
#StreetcolorsBeirut #RefugeeVoices #DisplacedChildren #SyrianCommunity #BeirutInitiatives #Childhood #Arthistory #GrassrootsProject #CommunityLed
A big congratulations to Louis Pohl Koseda @lalit_madhav_ , whose work is part of The Power of Drawing, a landmark exhibition alongside David Hockney, Tracey Emin, Tim Burton, and King Charles III. First shown at St James’s Palace on the 25th, it will continue at the Royal Drawing School’s Shoreditch campus from July 1–26.
Louis Pohl Koseda creates monumental drawings that engage systems of power through the revival of allegory in contemporary art. His practice directly reflects on complex social realities related to housing, finance, and institutional function. In his works we find intricately composed scenes that recall the masterpieces of Italian renaissance, but imbued with the forthrightness of modern reality.
Article link: /culture/art/article/royal-drawing-school-25th-anniversary-david-hockney-antony-gormley-tracey-emin-58k0xq0qp
July 1–26
The Royal Drawing School
19–22 Charlotte Rd, London EC2A 3SG
#LouisPohlKoseda #DavidHockney #TraceyEmin #AntonyGormley #TimBurton #QuentinBlake #CorneliaParker #RufusWainwright #CatherineGoodman #KingCharlesIII #ThePowerOfDrawing #RoyalDrawingSchool #Drawing #Sketching #Sunend #Figuration #ArtTheory #ArtHistory #Charcoal #LifeDrawing #Moma #ContemporaryArt #TheMet #ArtExhibition #ConceptualArt #Storytelling #Allegory #ArtPractice #Draftsmanship #StJamesPalace
Omar was 7 when he made the work, and Streetcolors Beirut as an organisation started with him. Born in Lebanon to a refugee family of five, who were living in a very small room next to a parking lot. When Karine Wehbé, founder of Streetcolors, tried out painting with him and the other children, Omar would come to her afterwards and ask when she would return, and start a school for him and his friends. She said he is the reason why Streetcolors officially came to be.
Omar’s artwork is a mixed-media assemblage on paper combining broad painterly fields of red and blue, brushed and scrubbed with objects. A loose black drawing in the upper centre-right with linear graphic marks on the left. Attached objects include a pale green strip, a black corrugated rectangle, and a small gold disc with a folded bottom. And it is overlayed with a delicate thin green strand arcing across the lower half, tacked down with bits of white tape and a small cutout...
To buy or read more about this piece visit the link in bio. The majority of funds raised from the sale of the Streetcolors Beirut artworks will go directly to help sustain its work.
Karine Wehbé, founder of Streetcolors Beirut, describes how on his first day with them, Walid, 4 at the time of this painting, “picked up the paper and threw lots of paint onto it, and over time developed a swinging gesture that was amazing to watch. He would sometimes scream while using brushes in a crazy way. He was intense and many times he would paint and then scream because he could not speak.”
This image is of a sparse proto-figurative abstraction of floating forms that read like ghost face ovals. With few repeated actions of curved arcs, dots and blottings the scene is built on a mostly empty off-white paper, which is the dominant part but remains silent, allowing the marks to become structural.
To buy or read more about this piece visit the link in bio. The majority of funds raised from the sale of the Streetcolors Beirut artworks will go directly to help sustain its work. Find the link to also read Hero’s in-depth interview with its founder, Karine Wehbé, to learn about her journey working with the displaced children.
Karine Wehbé, founder of Streetcolors Beirut, describes how on his first day with them, Walid, 4 at the time of this painting, “picked up the paper and threw lots of paint onto it, and over time developed a swinging gesture that was amazing to watch. He would sometimes scream while using brushes in a crazy way. He was intense and many times he would paint and then scream because he could not speak.”
Walid’s painting, reads like a stormy field of layered wide sweeps, rough loops linear vectors, and arcs that vie with one another for dominance over a pale chromatic base. It is turbulent and spatially elastic rendering the motion itself as a core subject.
To buy or read more about this piece visit the link in bio. The majority of funds raised from the sale of the Streetcolors Beirut artworks will go directly to help sustain its work. Find the link to also read Hero’s in-depth interview with its founder, Karine Wehbé, to learn about her journey working with the displaced children.
Karine Wehbé, founder of Streetcolors Beirut, describes how on his first day with them, Walid, 4 at the time of this painting, “picked up the paper and threw lots of paint onto it, and over time developed a swinging gesture that was amazing to watch. He would sometimes scream while using brushes in a crazy way. He was intense and many times he would paint and then scream because he could not speak.”
In Walid’s painting, made with diluted ink on paper, the dominant event is a large pink wash that pools and weighs down on the left with feathery edges where the pink water slipped away. The long drips running diagonally and vertically function as compositional vectors energising the mass on the left, are cut through by splatter and flicks in every direction in a speed that captures the moment of rupture. This vital energy is in the thick of it, and anchored by a denser maroon handle or head-like form that seems intact on the right while the empty white space with the fine streaks gives the image air.
To buy or read more about this piece visit the link in bio. The majority of funds raised from the sale of the Streetcolors Beirut artworks will go directly to help sustain its work. Find the link to also read Hero’s in-depth interview with its founder, Karine Wehbé, to learn about her journey working with the displaced children.
#StreetcolorsBeirut #RefugeeVoices #DisplacedChildren #SyrianCommunity #BeirutInitiatives #Childhood #Arthistory #GrassrootsProject #CommunityLed
Sunend.org presents a curated selection of works from Karine Wehbé’s volunteer-run project, Streetcolors Beirut @streetcolorsbeirut ). These pieces are direct, unfiltered expressions by refugee children displaced by instability, primarily from Syria, living in bare-bones social conditions without access to formal education.
The project enables self-understanding and empowerment as a healing process. Thanks to Wehbé's safe, non-interventional structure, many children have evolved from frozen styles of expression to much more complex compositions, thereby regaining a sense of agency.
To buy or read more about the artworks visit the link in bio. The majority of funds raised from the sale of the Streetcolors Beirut artworks will go directly to help sustain its work.
#StreetcolorsBeirut #RefugeeVoices #DisplacedChildren #SyrianCommunity #BeirutInitiatives #Childhood #Arthistory #GrassrootsProject #CommunityLed
Honoured to welcome Melanie Gerlis @mgerlis , art columnist at the Financial Times and Editor-at-large at The Art Newspaper, for a visit and discussion with Louis Pohl Koseda during his ongoing solo exhibition, Surreal Estates, at Upsilon Gallery.
Artwork: Capital at risk, 2024
We are pleased to announce Louis Pohl Koseda's solo exhibition SURREAL ESTATES,
13 November 2025 – 31 January 2026
Upsilon gallery, 64 Grosvenor Street, Mayfair
London W1K 4PZ.
This presentation marks Koseda’s second solo exhibition, following his debut at Christie’s in London earlier this year.
Using drawing and painting as records and as active processes of observation and transformation, Koseda turns to surrealism as a way of navigating the conditions of contemporary urban life. Surreal Estates explores the Jungian unconscious and dream imagery as they intersect with the material and psychological landscapes of modern London.
Through intricate linework and layered painterly surfaces, Koseda reveals fragmentary impressions and emotive sequences that deconstruct the city’s visual and cultural codes. The resulting works occupy a space between the seen and the felt, suggesting that the act of painting can be both a mirror and a method of discovery, a way of
knowing.
I will be showing a series of new paintings, my previously unexhibited abstract expressive paintings from my 2023 series, a number of my new research led drawings from this year. Please join in the 13th to see the works for the first time.
@upsilongallery@sunend_org@royaldrawingschool
I’m very happy to announce that my next solo exhibition SURREAL ESTATES will be opening on 13 November 2025 – 31 January 2026. The exhibition will be held in Upsilon gallery. 64 Grosvenor Street Mayfair London W1K 4PZ.
Exhibition description:
‘Upsilon Gallery London is pleased to present Surreal Estates, a solo exhibition by British artist Louis Pohl Koseda. Using drawing and painting not merely as records but as active processes of observation and transformation, Koseda turns to surrealism as a way of navigating the conditions of contemporary urban life. Surreal Estates explores the Jungian unconscious and dream imagery as they intersect with the material and psychological landscapes of modern London.
Through intricate linework and layered painterly surfaces, Koseda reveals fragmentary impressions and emotive sequences that deconstruct the city’s visual and cultural codes. The resulting works occupy a space between the seen and the felt, suggesting that the act of painting can be both a mirror and a method of discovery, a way of
knowing.
This presentation marks Koseda’s second solo exhibition, following his debut at Christie’s in London earlier this year.”
I will be showing a series of new paintings, my previously unexhibited abstract expressive paintings from my 2023 series, a number of my new research led drawings from this year. Please join in the 13th to see the works for the first time.
@upsilongallery@sunend_org@royaldrawingschool
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Closing 21 Sept: A free display at the Design Museum of Louis Pohl Koseda triptych in collaboration with Hani Salih and his research.
#LouisPohlKoseda #ContemporaryArt #DesignMuseum #SocialPractice #ArtExhibition #Triptych #SystemicThinking #Governance #Transparency #ClimateChange #AI #Activism
17 Jun – 21 Sept 2025; A free display at the Design Museum: Louis Pohl Koseda’s collaboration with researcher Hani Salih on Hot Mess, 2025, visualises Salih’s research on UK planning barriers to heat pump adoption.
Koseda demonstrates how art making can intersect with scientific research, policy planning, and climate action to create real-world impact.
#LouisPohlKoseda #ContemporaryArt #DesignMuseum #SocialPractice #ArtExhibition #Triptych #SystemicThinking #Governance #Transparency #ClimateChange #AI #Activism
