ENTRIES AND EXILES

CHICAGO : Mounira AI Solh draws portraits of refugees and captures their stories.

WHEN  the civil war in Syria escalated in 2012, the violence forced many residents to flee to neighbouring Lebanon.

Mounira AI SoIh, an artist remembers seeing a wave of immigrants enter her native Beirut, only to encounter  racist behavior there.

''I was seeing hundreds of new faces in my neighborhood,'' said Ms. AI Solh, now 39, who has a Syrian mother and a Lebanese father.

''I was curious. I wanted to meet those people, welcome them and help them feel at home.''

So she began moving some of the newcomers to her studio or cafe to hear there stories and draw their portraits. Six years later, she has not stopped.

Her portraits of refugees, mainly Syrians but also Afghans, Bengalis, Somalis and Ethiopians, currently number more than 450.

Now, the Art Institute of Chicago is showing about 250 drawings from the series, along with some related embroideries, in the first exhibition of Ms. AI Solh's work in the United States.

The series and show, which will run through April 29, are called :

''I strongly believe in our right to be frivolous,'' after a statement by Mahmoud Darwish, the Palestinian poet known for writing about the emotional roller coaster of exile.

Ms. AI Solh's portraits, too, find in the current refugee crisis moments of personal resilience or hopefulness amid the trauma.