Gaby el Ashkar is an Ottawa-based, Lebanese-Canadian, multidisciplinary artist working primarily in sculpture. Through clay, bronze, mixed media, and graphite, and with a deliberate stylistic fluidity spanning the conceptual, the figurative, and a seamless synthesis of both, he creates within the nuances of two interwoven registers: a critical engagement with contemporary social, political, and cultural issues, and a contemplative reflection on the human condition in its many states.

Born in Beirut (1979), against the backdrop of multiple wars, art emerged as a child's sole and undisclosed refuge, creating ephemeral conceptual vessels meant to contain the senselessness of chaos just long enough for it to be processed. It was never a desire to create the beautiful, but a need to make sense of the ugly. As years confirmed the indefinite renewal of his native dark-themed episodic saga, what began as a child's fleeting and private act of survival turned enduring and loud, growing into a vehicle of public defiance and an invitation for others to challenge systemic corruption, preconceived notions, and imposed narratives. A plot-twist episode saw him move to Ottawa (2022) in the aftermath of the Beirut port explosion.

Gaby holds a degree in Interior Architecture and Decorative Arts (2003 - valedictorian), through a five-year tenure at the Faculty of Fine Arts and Architecture at the Lebanese University, where he grounded his self-taught practice in rigorous academic foundations and a perspective-shifting immersion in art history, philosophy, and aesthetics.

Alongside his studio practice, he is an accomplished interior architect, an award-winning designer, and the co-founder of Inkrypted🗗 studio. His professional versatility, spatial awareness, interdisciplinary porosity, and ever-learning mentality continue to inform his work.

Today, across disciplines, Gaby's work has been showcased internationally, held in private collections, and recognized through numerous accolades, grants, and art residencies.