Nabil Nahas exhibits at Lawrie Shabibi

Renowned Lebanese-American artist Nabil Nahas has unveiled a series of multi-layered paintings at Lawrie Shabibi art gallery, Dubai. The exhibition, titled Tethys, is on display at the gallery till January 5^th 2024.

Drawing inspiration from his Mediterranean roots, the artist has created on his canvas, biomorphic and organic forms through vibrant colours and unique textures found abundantly in nature.

While his landscape series portray cedars, olives and palms in their natural rugged state with irregular trunk textures, in his fractal paintings, he yet again builds layers of paint to construct a three-dimensional surface. He often uses shades of blues and greens to evoke colours of the ocean, and earthy tones with metallic accents to represent the shimmering and reflective nature of water.

Interestingly the exhibition title, Tethys, refers to the rich history of the Tethys Sea, an enigmatic body of water, that once stretched across, what is now the Mediterranean region, Middle East and parts of Asia. The ancient sea played a pivotal role in shaping geological and biological evolution of our planet. In Greek mythology, Tethys, born of Uranus and Gaia, was both the sister and spouse of The Titan Oceanus and played the role of the mother to the river Gods and the Oceanids.

Born in 1949 in Beirut, Nahas, is one of Lebanon’s most well-known artists. He is well established in New York art circles as a master of colour, texture and atmosphere. In July 2013, he was awarded the honour of the National Order of the Cedar, for services to Lebanese culture. He currently lives and works in New York.