Huguette El Khoury Caland was born in Beirut in 1931. She began the first prototypes of her embroidered and hand-painted gowns in 1964. She studied art at the American University of Beirut from 1964 to 1968 but later moved to Paris in 1970. She lived and worked in New York for one year (1981-2). She then returned to Paris in 1983 where she worked under the tutorship of Rumanian sculptor George Apostu on a series of stone, wood and terra cotta sculptures. Caland moved from Paris to Los Angeles in 1988, where she presently lives and works.
Since 1993, she has been exhibited at the Janine Rubeiz Gallery in Beirut where her work is permanently on display. Her artwork has also been shown at the Delta Gallery in Rome, at Tokyo’s Museum of Modern Art, the Faris Gallery in Paris, the Monaco Art Center in Monte Carlo, Joan Miro Foundation in Barcelona and the International Biennale of Venice in Italy. She also participated in Europ’Art (Geneva), Start’Art (Strasbourg) and the “Brushes for Feathers” exhibition organized by Janine Rubeiz Gallery for the benefit of the Lebanese Foundation of the National Library in 2005. Her work was sold during the Auction Sale organized by Christie’s in 2006 and 2007 in Dubai and during the Auction Sale organized by Sotheby’s in 2007 in London.
Caland has pierced the galleries and institutions across the United States as early as 1970 with the Smithonian Institution in Washington DC. Recently, the Pacific Design Center and the Articultural Art Center in Los Angeles displayed her work. Caland’s work hang in the collections of the Bibliothèque Nationale and the Fonds National d’Art Contemporain in Paris. Her work is present notably in the Monaco and Beirut collections of the prominent collector Pierre Naim as well as in numerous private collections in Lebanon, France, United Kingdom, Canada and the United States.
Caland’s prolific talents also include designing a line of clothing for the famous designer Pierre Cardin, illustrations of books, sculptures and writing of screenplays.
In 2007, Caland’s joined the “Art-Paris Modern Art Fair” in Abu-Dhabi and recently in 2009 the “Art-Dubai” in Dubaï and the “Abu Dhabi Art 2009” in the United Arab Emirates with Janine Rubeiz gallery. She will be also featuring in “Art-Dubai” in the United Arab Emirates in March 2011.
Her work is permanently displayed at Janine Rubeiz Gallery.