About — Elias Nafaa

Elias Nafaa is an artist, architect, and researcher working between Montréal and Beirut. Through sculpture, moving-image essays, and archival interventions, he examines how infrastructures of protection can mirror the very violence they claim to avert. Navigating the fragile line where acts of care tip into coercion, Nafaa translates states of emergency into charged material and narrative forms.

A graduate of Ashkal Alwan’s Home Workspace Program, he is part of the Public Programs team at the Canadian Centre for Architecture and a 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale Fellow (Canada Council for the Arts). His work has been presented at Galerie Tanit (Beirut) and the Institut du monde arabe (Paris), with a forthcoming presentation at Manif d’art, Québec Biennale (Québec City). It is held in the collections of the Institut du monde arabe (Donation Claude & France Lemand), the Dalloul Art Foundation, and the Beirut Museum of Art.

Photo by Jinyoung Kim

Selected Solo Exhibitions

26 Handle with Care, La Chambre Blanche, Québec City, Canada

23 Eulogy to My Roots, Galerie Tanit, Beirut

22 Impulsions, ArtLab Gallery, Beirut
supported by the British Council Lebanon

Selected Group Exhibitions

25-26 Unfolding Landscapes, Villa Audi, Beirut
with Beirut Museum of Art

25 Unfolding Landscapes, Beiteddine Palace, Chouf, Lebanon
with the Beirut Museum of Art and British Council Lebanon

22 Imagine That Tomorrow, Abroyan Factory, Bourj Hammoud, Lebanon

21-22 Lumières du Liban, Institut du monde arabe, Paris

21 Togetherness, Galerie Tanit, Beirut

Residencies and fellowships

25 Canada Pavilion Fellowship, Venice Architecture Biennale, Venice
supported by the Canada Council for the Arts

23 Home Workspace Program Fellowship, Ashkal Alwan, Beirut

22 Hospitalfield × Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, Scotland
Laureate, Catapult.Visual Arts, British Council Lebanon

22 Atelier Faires, Anould, France
Laureate, NAFAS program, Institut français du Liban

21 Work in Process, Tripoli, Lebanon
Self-Organization Program, Mophradat

Publications

25 DAS 3: Provoking the Territory: Bernard Khoury
Project lead, captions writer and editor

24 DAS 2: Critical Encounters: Nasser Rabbat
Project lead

22 AMBIT × DONGOLA: The War Issue
Video featured

Upcoming

Manif d’Art, Québec Biennale (Feb. 2026), Québec, Canada

Montréal / Beirut

Contact