Nabil Nahas (Lebanese, B. 1949)

Nabil Nahas's style is defined by an exploration of repetitive geometric form through colour, contrast and abstraction. Circles, hypnotic spirals, and starfish protrude from the canvas in luminous vibrant colours. This work undoubtedly relies heavily on the direct encounter with the actual object, with its scale, its particular colours, and its sheer physical presence. Nahas's three dimensional texture is created by adding powdered pumice to acrylic paint. He has developed a style where heavily encrusted, brightly coloured organic shapes rigorously repeat themselves to infinity, bringing to mind the principles of Fractal Geometry as well as the proliferation of a single pattern one finds in Islamic art. His universe where order reigns over chaos seems to be caught between microcosm and macrocosm, it is at once playful and vibrant yet subliminal questions can be raised. His work appears in prestigious public collections such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, the Flint Institute of Art, Michigan and Mathaf in Doha.