Habib Fadel

Habib Fadel was born in 1968 in Beirut, Lebanon. To escape the Lebanese Civil War, his family sent him to Europe as a child, where he attended the Institut Florimont in Geneva. He returned to Lebanon in 1987 and, in 1991, earned a bachelor's degree in Business Management from Beirut University College, now the Lebanese American University.

Fadel's path then moved through several other disciplines before settling on visual art. Between 1993 and 1996 he took opera singing lessons with vocal coaches from the Milan Conservatory. In 1997 he relocated to Los Angeles, where he studied directing at the New York Film Academy while working on television production for NBC and for Arab-world networks. According to his official biography, he later studied painting at UCLA, and a separate account of the project "Nuit Blanche" states that he turned to painting around 2002, after an accident that affected the use of his hands.

In 2003 he returned to Lebanon and set up a studio in Beirut. His first solo exhibition, "War, School and Faces," opened at Alice Mogabgab Gallery in Beirut in 2012. A second solo show, "Visages et regards," followed in 2013 at Galerie Jacques Leegenhoek in Paris, alongside a presentation at the Art Paris fair. Later projects include "Tao," a 2019 collaboration with Samia Mehdi Gallery, and a 2022 project with Cella Gallery. Per his official biography, he now lives in Santa Margherita Ligure, Italy, though this specific claim rests on the artist's own site rather than independent confirmation. No obituary, death notice, or gallery statement of death was found, and his biography and website continue to describe him in the present tense as of this research, though no independent 2025 or 2026 source explicitly confirms his current status.

No verifiable critical commentary, awards, or honors from named critics in major outlets could be located for Habib Fadel. His public exhibition history is limited to a small number of gallery shows in Beirut and Paris and one participation in the Art Paris fair, plus more recent gallery projects in 2019 and 2022. This is a modest, gallery-level record rather than one built on museum surveys or sustained critical attention, and it should be read as such.

Fadel's public market footprint is limited but not empty. Auction aggregator MutualArt reports a record price of USD 109,868 for the painting "Dad," sold at Christie's Paris in 2015; the exact sale date and the original sale currency are not published in that source. Separately, Artscoops notes that Fadel's first painting sold at Christie's Paris in November 2014, though no price or lot detail is documented for that earlier sale. No other public auction results were located. Collectors should treat these figures as provisional, drawn from a single auction-aggregator source rather than a published Christie's record, and should confirm any pricing directly with the auction house.

The public record for Habib Fadel is thin. There is no confirmed catalogue raisonne, no confirmed current gallery or estate representation, and no confirmed museum collection holding. The only market data point with a reported price is a MutualArt-listed auction record of USD 109,868 for "Dad" at Christie's Paris in 2015, alongside a separately documented but undisclosed-price first sale at Christie's Paris in November 2014. Anyone considering a transaction involving this artist's work should verify authenticity, provenance, and pricing directly with the artist's studio, the auction house, or the specific galleries that have exhibited him, rather than relying on secondary sources.