Simone Fattal was born in Damascus, Syria, and raised in Lebanon, where she studied philosophy at the École des Lettres in Beirut. She then moved to Paris, where she continued her philosophical pursuits at the Sorbonne. In 1969 she returned to Beirut and began working as a visual artist, exhibiting her paintings until the start of the Lebanese Civil War. She left Lebanon in 1980 and settled in California, where she founded the Post-Apollo Press, a publishing house dedicated to innovative and experimental literary work. In 1988 she enrolled at the Art Institute of San Francisco, which prompted a return to her artistic practice and a newfound dedication to sculpture and ceramics.
Fattal currently lives and works in Paris. Recent solo and two-person exhibitions include: Ashkal Alwan, Beirut (2023); KINDL, Berlin (2023); Ocean Space, Venice (2023); Portikus, Frankfurt (2023); Museum Fünf Kontinente (2022); Fondazione Dalle Nogare, Bolzano (2022); Whitechapel Gallery, London (2021); ICA Milano, Milan (2021); Bergen Kunsthall (2020); MoMA PS1, New York (2019); Musée Yves Saint Laurent, Marrakech (2018); and Sharjah Art Foundation (2016).
Significant group exhibitions include: Schinkel Pavillion and Bruecke Museum, Berlin (2023); 59th Venice Biennale, The Milk of Dreams (2022); Gropius Bau, Berlin (2022); Aïshti Foundation, Beirut (2022); 12th Berlin Biennale (2022); 16th Biennale de Lyon, France (2022); MAM – Musée d’art Moderne de Paris (2021); Punta Della Dogana, Pinault Collection, Venice (2019); New Museum, New York (2014); and Sharjah Biennial (2011).
Her work is in the collections of the Aïshti Foundation, Beirut; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Centre national des arts plastiques, Paris; Metropolitan Art Society, Beirut; mumok, Vienna; Musée Yves Saint Laurent, Marrakech; National Museum of Qatar, Doha; Sharjah Art Foundation; Sursock Museum, Beirut; and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.
Simone Fattal is represented by Galerie Tanit Beirut.
