Lebanese painter and sculptor Nicole Sarkis is taking part in the Florence Biennale 2025, an international celebration of contemporary art and design. This year’s edition is centered around the theme “The Sublime Essence of Light and Darkness: Concepts of Dualism and Unity in Contemporary Art and Design,” a reflection on how contrasting forces—light and shadow, resistance and release, rootedness and flight—are in truth part of one unbroken whole.
In this context, Sarkis’s bronze sculptures offer a profound meditation on identity, resilience, and the dialogue between attachment and aspiration. Her piece Living Tree, Light in the Earth captures a human figure emerging from the soil, its form symbolizing the enduring connection to one’s origins while reaching upward in search of transcendence. Birds hover above the figure’s head, representing freedom, movement, and the eternal desire to rise beyond circumstance. “My work explores the delicate balance between light and darkness—both as a universal duality and as a reflection of life in the Middle East, particularly in Lebanon,” says Sarkis. “The sculpture speaks of our deep bond with the land—a relationship that is nurturing yet confining, a story of struggle, beauty, and rebirth.” Another centerpiece of Sarkis’s presentation is a bronze face sculpture inspired by the legendary Lebanese singer Fairouz and her timeless songs, which have long been symbols of nostalgia, hope, and unity. Through this work, Sarkis channels the emotional resonance of Fairouz’s voice—its melancholy and light—translating music into form, silence, and shadow.
Though cast in bronze, Sarkis’s works carry a sense of motion and fluidity that transcends the heaviness of the medium. They embody both strength and tenderness, reflecting the eternal dance between weight and grace, captivity and liberation. Her participation at the Biennale has been met with great acclaim, culminating in a sold-out showing, a testament to the universal appeal and emotional depth of her art. “The figure rooted in the earth yet yearning toward the sky mirrors our shared human condition,” Sarkis notes. “It is the story of resistance and renewal—of finding light even within darkness.”
Following her success in Florence, Nicole Sarkis will next exhibit her work at the Salon d’Automne in Paris this October, continuing her exploration of the poetic intersections between material, memory, and spirit.
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