Youssef Nabil

Youssef Nabil's hand-colored gelatin silver prints are carefully crafted portraits that pay homage to the glamour of Egyptian films of the 1940s and 50s. From formal studio portraits, to intimate images of subjects resting or sleeping, to the artist's series of self-portraits, Nabil's images con... Read more

Youssef Nabil’s hand-colored gelatin silver prints are carefully crafted portraits that pay homage to the glamour of Egyptian films of the 1940s and 50s. From formal studio portraits, to intimate images of subjects resting or sleeping, to the artist’s series of self-portraits, Nabil’s images confer an air of cinematic immortality on his subjects. Nabil meticulously enhances his black-and-white photographs with watercolor, gouache and pencil, transforming his subjects — friends, actors, artists and himself — into retro cinematic icons that hover between realism and dream-like romanticism.

Youssef Nabil’s work has been exhibited internationally at the British Museum, London; Centro de la Imagen, Mexico City; North Carolina Museum of Art; BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Newcastle; Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona; Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris; Kunstmuseum, Bonn, Germany; Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, Sevilla; and Aperture Foundation, New York. Mr. Nabil was born in 1972 in Cairo and currently lives and works in New York. This will be the artist’s first solo show in New York.