Born in Lebanon, where she currently lives, Joanna Rizk obtained an M.A. in Illustration from the Parsons School of Design (New York and Paris) in 1996.

At the crossroads of abstraction and figuration, Rizk extensively explored the theme of the fragmented city. She interpreted its broken architecture as new urban signs, through a mixed-media technique derived of collage. She then embarked on an investigation of the symbolism of the tree, whose multiple languages evoke the perpetual rebirth and metamorphosis of nature.

Rizk overlays the painted canvas with strips of newspaper of varying sizes to celebrate the tree’s constant rebirth, which she likens to her own artistic quest, where the work is always reinvented, destroyed and then reborn under its definite shape.

Since 1996, Rizk has been exhibiting in galleries in Beirut, New York, and Paris, as well as contemporary art fairs such as Art Paris Abu Dhabi in 2007 and Art Dubai in 2009. In parallel to her painting, Rizk has also worked in illustration and Web design.