Nabil Nahas
Grounded in the Sky
From 2nd April 2023

Exhibition in Renzo Piano Pavilion and the Old Store Winehouse Gallery. 

Curator Joanna Chevalier

Château La Coste and CMS Collection are delighted to presentGrounded in the Sky, the first solo exhibition in France by Lebanese American artist, Nabil Nahas.

For the Renzo Piano Pavilion, Nahas has filled the walls with four large-scale canvases from his new series « Constellation ». The visitor becomes immediately absorbed in the dance of these spiral compositions that unfold like musical scores, expressing joy, and drawing audiences into the cosmos. Whilst the works evoke the celestial skies above, they also echo the patterns found on seabeds highlighted by the presence of sea star. Situated outside the gallery, Nahas has created his largest sculpture to-date, continuing the artists’ exploration into organic forms that are at once abstract, yet also recall structures found in nature.

Concurrently on show in the Old Wine Storehouse, Nahas will display a more personal series of work linked to his origins in Lebanon. Featuring olive trees, palm trees and cedars, which are critical to the history, culture and ecology of his homeland, the works rise up to form a gallery of botanical portraits. In Untitled 2022 a large yellow composition has been used on a black background to show a raging forest fi re. Whilst elsewhere, burnt olive trees are depicted against a background of a burning landscape. These works are a direct reference to the devastating explosion in the port of Beirut in August 2020. Whilst the somber palette and expressive brushwork portrays the collective pain and shock of this violent incident, there is a defi ant manner in which Nahas depicts these trees. The strong, dark masses stand as symbols of a rich history and heritage, simultaneously evoking both pride and national trauma.

« You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star. » Friedrich Nietzsche