MARKET: Meet the Gallerists | Sfeir-Semler

“I love what I do…It is my passion and the center of my life.” – Andrée Sfeir-Semler, founder of Sfeir-Semler

When Andrée Sfeir-Semler’s Beirut gallery opened at the start of the Cedar Revolution, the future of the gallery was already shadowed in doubt. ‘You had the feeling that the war was starting all again…You wouldn’t be able to leave your house after 7pm and that’s bad for an opening,” she says, laughing. ‘And we had 1800 visitors. And it was…I get emotional.’

Located in the industrial Quarantina area, the large and light-filled gallery represents more than just the chic parts of the city. ‘The city is a city of contrast. You have beauty and ugliness next to each other. You have reasons to make art every second…’

Sfeir-Semler will be participating in the Galleries sector of Art Basel’s Miami Beach show for the first time, and exhibiting works by artists such as Etel Adnan, Walid Raad, Akram Zaatari, Timo Nasseri, and Yto Barrada, among others.