Bahia Shehab

Artist, designer and art historian.

Image courtesy of Brownbook magazine and Nadia Mounier - Bahia Shehab

Artist+Creative Director+Islamic Art Historian

Bahia Shehab is a Lebanese-Egyptian artist, designer and art historian.

She is associate professor of professional practice and director of the visual cultures and graphic design programs at the American University in Cairo. She has developed and launched the new graphic design major for the department of the arts with courses mainly focused on visual culture of the Arab world.

Her artwork has been on display at exhibitions and galleries in China, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Lebanon, UAE and the US. Between 2011 and 2013 she was active as a street artist during the Egyptian uprising. The documentary Nefertiti's Daughters featuring her street artwork was released in 2015.

Her book, A Thousand Times NO: The Visual History of Lam-Alif, was published in 2010 by Khatt Books. Bahia was selected as one of BBC’s 100 Women for two consecutive years in 2013 and 2014. The American University in Beirut honored her as distinguished alumna in 2015. She is a 2012 TED Global Fellow and a 2016 TED Senior Fellow.