Semaan Khawam is a self-taught multidisciplinary artist. He is a painter, sculptor, graffiti and installation artist, whose work is informed by the daily reality of the city he lives in. Khawam uses his work to draw attention to political contradictions, social injustice, the lack of cultural appreciation and other uncomfortable realities. Early in 2012, he spray-painted an armed soldier on a wall in Gemmayzeh to remind people of the Lebanese Civil War, something that he feels has been forgotten.  His arrest for this act drew international attention to the limits on free speech and artistic expression. For his latest series of works which were exhibited at Agial Art Gallery, he uses unrecycled materials to produce sculptures of his recurring figure, “the birdman”.