Seta Manoukian

Seta Manoukian was born in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1945, to a family of Armenian descent. She studied painting under Paul Guiragossian and went on to train at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma, graduating in 1966. Her early recognition came in 1963, when she received first prize in an art competition organized by the Italian Embassy, an award accompanied by a scholarship to Perugia. These formative years in Italy shaped a practice that would remain rooted in figuration, psychological depth, and a sustained engagement with place and cultural identity.

Returning to Beirut, Manoukian continued to teach and exhibit throughout the Lebanese Civil War — a period that left a direct imprint on her canvases. Then They Go (1979), a large oil on wood measuring 123 × 206 cm, stands as a major work from this wartime context, while Ras Beirut (1981), acrylic on canvas courtesy of collector Sami Sawma, anchors her imagery in the specific geography and memory of the city. The North Wind or Composition (Le vent du nord ou Composition) (1982), now held in the Sursock Museum, Beirut, marks a movement in her work toward more formally organized composition without abandoning its emotional charge. A solo exhibition at Galerie Elissar, Beirut, in 1984 affirmed her standing within the city's art scene before a decisive turning point: in 1985, the year she left Lebanon for California, she completed Les Arcades (acrylic on canvas, 125 × 175 cm), a work now in the Saradar Collection that occupies a transitional position between her two lives.

After relocating to Los Angeles, Manoukian maintained an active studio practice. I'll be Calm (1989), a substantial acrylic on canvas at 162 × 171 cm, documents the continuation of her work in California, and her 1990s paintings — among them The Dream of His Life (1993) and A Man of Culture (1993), both held in the Saradar Collection — demonstrate a mature figurative language charged with psychological and cultural inquiry. In 2005, she was ordained as a Buddhist nun, taking the name Ani Pema Drolma, a transformation that has informed the contemplative dimension of her later work. Her paintings are held in the collections of the Sursock Museum in Beirut and the Barjeel Art Foundation in Sharjah, and she has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Tufenkian Fine Arts in Glendale (2019) and Marfa' Projects in Beirut (2024, Dew Drops), as well as a group exhibition at the Barjeel Art Foundation. In 2025, Tricycle: The Buddhist Review published a feature on her life and practice.