Nabil Mousa: Breaking the Chains
essays by Charles A.Riley and John Cauman
2016
For Atlanta-based artist Nabil Mousa, the color orange is a visual metaphor for the fear experienced by those marginalized because of their gender identity or sexual identity. This mixed-media exhibition takes up the fraught politics of LGBTQ+ rights in the United States. Born in Syria and raised in a conservative Christian household in the U.S., Mousa incorporates the cultural tensions of both countries into his practice, pitting socio-religious oppression against self-realization. His work is always framed by hope for greater equality, no matter how naive or impossible that might seem in the face of ever-challenging political and religious differences.
