Born in Lebanon in 1943, Ali Chams took his license in philosophy at the Beirut Arab University in 1972, and the diploma of high studies in painting at the Lebanese University, Beirut, in 1974.

He continued his studies at the Fine Arts Academy in St. Petersburg, in the USSR between1 975 and 1980, and later went to Paris, where he received a diploma in painting from the High National School for Ornamental Arts. Since then, he has been an instructor in fine arts at the Lebanese University in Beirut.

Until 2010 he held fourteen individual exhibitions in Lebanon: the Association of Lebanese Painters and Sculptors, Beirut in 1986; at Gallery Epreuve d'Artiste in 1992, Gallery Alwan in Kaslik in 1988, 1989, 1993, 1995, and 1998; the Saida Cultural Center in 1989; Gallery L'Amateur in 1991; Unesco Palace, Beirut in 2006; and at Gallery Aida Cherfan, in Beirut in 2004, 2008, and 2010. In 2001 he exhibited at the National Council for Culture, Arts, and Literature in Kuwait.

Ali Chams participated in over sixty group exhibitions. His participations abroad were mainly in Leningrad in 1980; at la Gallery and Unesco Hall, Paris, min 1982; the Hall of the National Academy for Ornamental Arts, Paris, in 1983 and 1984; the Student Hall of Middle East Students, Paris, in 1984; Les Realités Nouvelles in the Grand Palais, Paris, in 1984; in Gallery Koufa, London, in 1989; El Ain Institution, Abu Dhabi, in 1989; at the Barbican Center, London, in 1989; the Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, in 1989; and exhibitions of Lebanese Art in Damascus, Aleppo, Hama, and Homs in 1994; the Cairo Biennale in 1994; El Karine Cultural Festival, Kuwait, in 1995; at the Museum of Arts, Sharjah, in 1996; the Modern Art Museum, Cairo, in 1998; Daret el Funoun, Amman, in 1998; Mascat in 1998; the Army Museum, Damascus, 1998 and Monte Rosa, Damascus, in 2000.

Ali Chams was honored with the Cairo International Award in 1994.

Extracts of Resonances - 82 Lebanese Artists - Reviewed by Helen Khal - Edited by Cesar Nammour and Gabriela Schaub

The artist has passed away on January 2019