The mysterious, psychedelic tableaux of Nabil Nahas teeter at literal and metaphorical boundaries. Resembling coral reefs or fluttering fungi, his assemblages of individually hued paint-wafers can be read as bizarrely textured accumulations of impasto or as reliefs carved out of paint. Equally hybrid is the emotional location of this at once luxurious and threatening carpet of color. The feelings and associations it elicits are earthy and ethereal, terrestrial and marine, sickly and redemptive. DAVID COHEN
Nabil Nahas, Bacchanal, 1996, 2016. Acrylic on canvas, 71 x 59 inches. Courtesy of Ben Brown Fine Arts
on view at The Armory Show (booth 613) through Sunday.
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