Hala Marji is a Lebanese visual artist, residing in Portugal.
Hala Marji is a visual artist whose practice explores humanity, identity, and the quest for connection. Originally a graphic designer with fifteen years of professional experience, she turned fully to painting in 2022 at the age of forty. This decision marked a defining turning point—an urgent response to a heightened awareness of time following a personal hardship that reshaped her perspective.
After thirteen years of design practice, she dedicated herself full-time to practicing art. In 2023, she established her small art studio in Beirut, which she was forced to abandon in October 2024 due to the outbreak of war. She has since lived in Portugal, joining the artist residency at Fábrica Moderna in January 2026.
Born in Beirut amid war and turbulence, Marji’s life and work are deeply shaped by continuous displacement. Having left her homeland four times—as a student, an expatriate, and ultimately as an immigrant and refugee—her practice engages with core questions surrounding humanity, belonging, and the profound weight of yearning and longing.
At its heart, her work examines the universal human effort to integrate, adapt, and seek inclusion within a community. Through painting, she exposes the contrasting tensions of alienation and connection, depicting how the search for acceptance manifests through body language, posture, and human behavior.
Hala seeks to make sense of a world shaped by unequal power dynamics—where individuals are either trapped by systemic restrictions or forced to flee their homes. Her practice reflects a deep yearning for a more equitable and compassionate world: a place free from forced separation, war, and artificial barriers, where people can seek connection, pursue their dreams, and share in the earth’s resources with dignity.
On the canvas, my soul is free at its best;
it flies, it slows, it lives.
