Samir Sammoun

Matin de Mai / Morning in May

2019

A master of the idyllic landscape, it comes as no surprise that Samir Sammoun grew up on a 1000 year-old olive grove plantation in the small, craggy village of Joun, Lebanon. Despite the size of the village, many of its residents are very well educated and Sammoun is no exception. While pursuing a formal secondary education, Sammoun began experimenting with oil paints and following graduation was accepted into the École des Arts et Métiers in the vibrant city of Beirut. Soon after finishing his post-secondary studies however, Sammoun felt the desire to further broaden his horizons and in 1973, he immigrated to Montreal where he pursued a bachelor’s degree in engineering followed by a master’s degree in telecommunications. He then began a successful career as a telecommunications engineer, obtaining several patents and eventually becoming Vice-President of the cable giant Videotron, but his love of art never left his mind. He continued painting regularly and while he was changing the world of cable, he also launched a career as a professional artist. Sammoun took the practice of his art seriously and it wasn’t long before people took notice of him as an artist, not just as an engineer. The President of Lebanon invited him as a special guest to the Presidential Palace in Beirut, where one of Sammoun’s paintings now hangs. That proved only to be the beginning for Sammoun. Since the inception of his artistic career, he has had solo exhibitions at the Musée des Beaux-arts (Montreal) and the Galerie d’Orsay (Boston), group exhibitions at Art Expo New York (1996-2013) and Art Expo Miami (2013), and was asked by the First Lady of New York if his work would be a part of the permanent collection at the Champlain Museum. He and his work also appear in several publications like Fine Art Magazine and in the archives of the National Library of Canada and the Bibliothèque Nationale du Québec. Although Sammoun’s work is much collected privately, his work is a part of many corporate and public collections as well. These include the collections at the Coca Cola Corporation Headquarters, IBM, Novartis Canada, the Government of Quebec, and many more. The European city and landscapes have the energy of a Van Gogh, the loveliness of a Monet, and a feel to them that is uniquely Samir Sammoun.