Nabil Nahas will represent Lebanon at the Venice Biennale, which will run from 9 May to 22 November 2026.
The internationally renowned artist is known for his unique visual language, which sits between figuration and abstraction. Nahas was born in Beirut and moved to the United States in 1969, where he received a BFA from Louisiana State University and an MFA from Yale University.
Nahas’ practice is deeply informed by the dual contexts of the Mediterranean and Manhattan, characterised by a refusal to submit to any one style of art. Instead, the artist intimately interprets the landscapes of the Islamic geometry he was surrounded by in his early life, as well as the American abstract expressionism of his years in the United States. Nahas melds the elements of the natural world and Islamic art, focusing on the push and pull found amidst the chromatic and geometric aspects of the two, with the variety of visual languages expressed in his work finding common ground in the ever-present reverence for the natural world.
The artist, who is based between Beirut and New York, has had his work acquired by major institutions worldwide, including The British Museum, the Tate Modern, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Barjeel Art Foundation, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, the Ramzi and Saeda Dalloul Art Foundation and the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi.
A selection committee including Nada Ghandour, who will also serve as chief commissioner and curator of the Lebanese Pavilion for the third edition in a row, Maria Sukkar, co-chair of Tate’s MENAAC, trustee at ICA London, Bidoun New York, and founder of the ISelf Collection, Basel Dalloul, founder and chairman of the Ramzi and Saeda Dalloul Art Foundation (DAF) and Elie Khouri, president of the Elie Khouri Art Foundation (EKAF). The Lebanese Pavilion is located in the Arsenale and is organised with the Lebanese Visual Art Association (LVAA).
The selection committee members commented on the artist’s appointment: “Nabil Nahas has an extraordinary ability to explore the intricate relationships between nature, geometry, and the cosmos, creating a unique visual language that seamlessly blends abstraction and figuration. His monumental works, existing between painting and sculpture, employ fractal forms with scientific precision and artistic sensitivity. The result is an immersive, sensory, and meditative experience that navigates the tensions between chaos and harmony. Through his art, Nabil Nahas offers a poetic vision of the world – one that resonates with contemporary concerns while evoking both the spiritual and the material, the intimate and the cosmic.”
The 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia will run from 9 May to 22 November
