Mariane Ibrahim is proud to present its first solo exhibition with Youssef Nabil, No one Knows but the Sky.
Cinema forms the stage upon which the photographic and video work of Youssef Nabil unfolds. Within it, the history of Egyptian cinema coexists with his childhood memories of Cairo, shaped by the film posters of a country that remains a major center of popular culture. Through its images, sounds, and stories, Egyptian cinema has shaped tastes, morals, and even language across the Arab world for decades. Through cinema, Nabil encountered art for the first time, and it remains the lens through which he has continued to observe and register the many transformations of his native land.
The artworks presented in this exhibition—one of which gives the exhibition its title, and where the video The Room is shown for the first time—offer a glimpse into the last twenty years of the artist’s practice, where his stylized films move alongside hand-colored images. In these pieces, Nabil applies a meticulous process of painting directly onto the print, transforming each work into a unique object, in the tradition of the Egyptian film posters of his youth.
Image: Youssef Nabil, Self-portrait with Roots, Los Angeles, 2008. Courtesy of the artist and Mariane Ibrahim.
