In Boundless Ties, a recent exhibition that bridges continents, cultures, and personal history, Lebanese-Canadian visual artist Nayla Kilzi presents a compelling body of work exploring identity, repetition, and the human experience. Titled the Connection series, the show is a vibrant meditation on humanity’s intrinsic links: how we intersect, relate, and coexist, however distant or disparate our paths may seem. The exhibition runs from July 29 to September 9 at the Smallville Hotel’s main lobby.
In Boundless Ties, an exhibition curated by Dr. Tony Karam and on view from July 29 to September 9 at the Smallville Hotel’s main lobby, Lebanese-Canadian artist Nayla Kilzi invites art lovers into a vivid exploration of identity, memory, and human connection. Through her striking Connection series, Kilzi weaves a visual narrative that spans continents and cultures, reflecting on how our lives intertwine, sometimes subtly, sometimes powerfully, no matter how far apart we may seem.
Born in Beirut in 1970, Kilzi embarked on a journey of rediscovery and resilience. Though she displayed an early passion for drawing, often sketching faces in the margins of her school notes, it wasn’t until 2017 that she fully returned to her artistic calling. Following a career in computer science and years devoted to family life and business, Kilzi re-entered the creative world with newfound fervor. She set up her studio, immersed herself in art courses, and began to channel her lifelong visual instincts into painting.
Her latest works speak with a bold voice. Painted primarily in acrylics on canvas, and occasionally using mixed media, the pieces are characterized by their rich, saturated palettes. The influence of masters like Paul Gauguin can be felt in her confident use of color and form. But it is the human face, especially profiles, that emerges as her most persistent motif. This enduring subject harks back to her childhood sketches, yet now takes on deeper emotional and philosophical dimensions.
There is a quiet logic that underpins Kilzi’s compositions, perhaps a nod to her earlier studies in computer science at the University of Montreal. Her fascination with repetition, profiles reproduced in varying numbers and distances across the canvas, creates rhythm and tension, reinforcing her themes of connection and fragmentation.
Living now between Beirut and Montreal, with her three daughters based in the latter, Kilzi embodies the transnational identity her work so poignantly explores. Her life has been marked by displacement and return, by war and resettlement, and these layers of experience resonate through her art. Each canvas becomes a map of emotional geography, charting the invisible threads that bind us together.
The Connection series has been exhibited in several venues across Lebanon and the UAE, drawing viewers into Kilzi’s world of faces—each one echoing both a personal memory and a shared human story. In every line and color, Nayla Kilzi invites us to contemplate our own connections, and the profound truth that no one is ever truly alone.
Comments