Nabil Azab, “Artwork detail - nighttime”, Variable dimensions, archival inkjet print on canvas, 2025. Courtesy of the Artist and Franz Kaka, Toronto.
Thought Pictures
Nabil Azab
Visual Arts Centre of Clarington
September 20 - December 7, 2025
Opening Reception:
Saturday, September 20, 2 - 4 PM
Guest Curated by: Danica Pinteric
Observing narratives of representation, distortion, and magic associated with photography throughout history, Nabil Azab’s practice contends with the ways images shape our reality. Drawing from a vast pool of source imagery, textual, and visual references, Azab destabilises the adage that images are neutral purveyors of truth. Thought Pictures grapples with the material properties of the photographic medium, emphasizing the unruly character of this form through intentional distortions caused by manipulating analog and digital equipment. Working between photography and installation, this new body of work contradicts the perceived impenetrability of the image by emphasizing the tactility and instability of photography’s foundations.
Exhibition Programming
Opening Reception + Artist Talk:
The VAC invites you to attend our Opening Reception on Saturday, September 20, 2025, from 2 - 4 PM.. Light refreshments will be provided.
About the Artist:
Nabil Azab (B. 1994, Paris, FR) is an artist, educator and researcher who is currently based in Los Angeles, USA. Azab’s work considers found and taken photographs as material to be collaged, manipulated, abstracted, and re-worked through a wide range of photographic techniques. The result underlines the political and psychedelic charge of the photograph. Often drawing from his own history as an immigrant of North African heritage, Azab’s work questions the complexity of photography’s relationship to time, light, and memory. He is currently an MFA candidate at the University of California – Riverside and holds a BFA from Concordia University.
About the Guest Curator:
Danica Pinteric is a curator and writer based in Toronto. She is the founder of Joys (est. 2022), an independent gallery dedicated to exploring the politics of vulnerability and embracing the poetic opportunities in exhibitionary making. Danica was recently an Exhibition Curator for Nuit Blanche Toronto 2024 and has worked at the Goldfarb Gallery (formerly the Art Gallery of York University), Vtape, and Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Her writing has been featured by a variety of galleries and publications, including C Mag, Stedelijk Studies, and Contemporary Art Galleries Association (AGAC).
Accessibility:
The VAC is not yet fully accessible, with stairwell access to our third-floor Loft Gallery. Please email us if you require additional accommodations so we can meet your needs or provide additional seating as required.
Thought Pictures is organized by the Visual Arts Centre of Clarington with support from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council. Thanks to Samantha Lance, Dionne Powlenzuk, Megan Kammerer, Kayla Ward, David Wigley, and Franz Kaka for their support and assistance with realizing the projects.
