Chawky Frenn

Associate Professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA

CHAWKY FRENN was born in Zahlé, Lebanon. Before emigrating to the United States in 1981, he witnessed six years of civil war. Its devastating consequences have powerfully influenced his life and artwork. Frenn received a BFA from Mass College of Art and Design in Boston, MA in 1985, and an MFA from Tyler School of Art of Temple University in Philadelphia, PA in 1988. He is currently an Associate Professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA. Frenn has exhibited his work throughout the United States, and around the globe, and has received critical acclaim from publications including the New York Times, NY ARTS, Art New England, Boston Globe, Connecticut Post, Atlanta Magazine, and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in the United States, as well as An-Nahar,

L’Orient - Le Jour, and The Daily Star in Lebanon. He was awarded two Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Awards, which enabled him to pursue his international academic and creative research in New Delhi in 2017 and Varanasi in 2024, India. Frenn is the author of two books 100 Boston Artists and 100 Boston Painters published in 2013 and 2012 by Schiffer Publishing. Art for Life’s Sake, a monograph on Frenn’s work, was published by Fine Arts Consulting and Publishing in Beirut, Lebanon, in 2006.