Nabil Kanso

KANSO, Nabil Born in Lebanon, American artist Nabil Kanso dedicated his life to the pursuit of peace through art and social activism. He was known for his evocative, emotionally raw murals, paintings, sketches, and watercolors. Kanso drew inspiration from the tension and upheaval of war, with many of his major works focused on conflicts in Lebanon, Vietnam, South Africa, and the Middle East. Nabil Kanso was a first-generation neo-expressionist and one of the foremost exponents of figurative expressionism. After graduating from New York University with undergraduate and master's degrees, he began his career in New York in the nineteen-seventies. Over the following four decades, Kanso achieved significant international acclaim, hosting solo exhibitions of his monumental paintings in South America, Kuwait, the Red Cross Museum in Geneva, and most recently, at the Permanent Mission of Venezuela to the United Nations in New York. Throughout his career, Kanso created thousands of works that comprise over 80 series, calling attention to global socio-political issues, and painting as a weapon against war. For more than forty years, Kanso lived with his wife Rhonda in Atlanta, where they raised their children.