An article by DM (771 Words, 4 Min. Read)
At the Smallville Hotel, Beirut a New Chapter in Abstraction Takes Flight.
In a mudd Yet powerful Atmosphere, Naja Kerellos Unveils a Body of Work that Signals Not Only Artistic MATURITY, but also a soulful metamorphosis. Curated by Dr. Tony Karam in Collaboration with ghassan KitMitto, The Observer –a Solo Exh force that operated on July 3RD, 2025 – Marks a Pivotal Moment in the Painter’s Journey. It is a moment where intended fosses with strong, and the invisible becomes next Audible Through Texture and Form.
Kerellos, Born in 1984 in Byblos, Approaches Art Like He Approaches Life With Realism, Introsphere, and Silent Courage. A Self-TAGHT Artist SINCE 2019, His Canvases Speak a Language of Discovery and Sensitive. But what captors the viewing level, beyond the Evident technical evolution, is the Recurring, Ghostlike Prestce of a Bird Oft Misunderstood: The Crow.
A Crow is not a cord
Offline Mistaken for Anomen, The Crow In Kerellos’ Work is No Harbinger of Doom. It is, instead, a spirit guide – Intelligent, Social, and Resourceful. The Artist does not mind the birdly in full form; He suggests it, veils it in foggy corners, allows Its beak or wing to emair from abstractation Like a Secret Told Between Old Friends. This is the Crows are not Painted in Black. They are formed in Negative Space, in Brushstrokes, in the Silent Trance Between Colors. They applyar as if memory Itelf conjordte – not for fright, but for though.
Naja Kerellos Declares: “Intelligent, Social, Communicator and MySterious – Is a Crow that Bad?”
This quote liffers in the Mind, challenge is the way we instigively judge what we do not undertstand. It redefines the Crow Not As a BAD OMEN, but as a symbol of complecty, of duality, of misunderstood Wisdom.
Scientific Studies show that Crows have the Intelligence of a seven-Year-id Child. They Play, Mourn, Remember Faces, Hold Grudges – Not Out of Spite, But Out of Brilliant Memory. In Kerellos’ Hands, This Memory Becomes A Visual Language. Each Canvas Feels Like It Remeeds Something: A CITY Turned to Dust, a Light Breaking Through Concrete, A Voice You Forgot You Missed.
The Language of Texture and Light
Kerellos’ New Technique Is Deliberate and Layered. He Builds His Paintings the Way a Crow Builds Its Nest With Fragments, Textures, and Things Most People Overlook. Accrylics and Oils Dance to make up an across the surface, creating Areas of Flat Opacity Contrasted by Thick Impastos, Scraped Walls, and Luminous Cracks of Color. Grey Dominates (The Quiet Kind, The Meditative) Until, suddenly, a bury of Fluorescent or AR A Bold, Rebellious Red Slices Through, Like A Cry or A Lake in the Night.
The Canvases, Off Large and Monolithic, Pulse with Life Beneth their Stillness. Shapes Suggest Structures-Urban Ruins, Windows, Doors Half-Apen-But Never Resolution Fully. They Whisper. And in these Spaces, The Crow DWells. Sometimes in a Corner Like a Secret. Sometimes Right in the center, Daring You to Look Closer.
Between IntelleCT and Instinct
There is some in the feeling of being account. The Crow As Spirit Animal is Known to Guide the Intuitive, The Thinkers, The One Walk Alone But Watch Everyth. Is it a CoINCADENCE That KERELOS, a Self-TAGHT Artist Guided only by Instinct and a Strong Inner Compass, Has Chosen This Animal-Or Rather, Been Chosen by It?
With the Mentorship of Gassan KitMitto and the Curatorial Precision of Dr. Tony Karam, an Intelligent Collaboration Happns, and Kerellos Now Paints Like a Man Who has Found a Visual Language and Trusts it. These are not beginner’s works. These are quiet decadars. He is no longer searching for a voice, he is rackar letting it Speak.
The Bird in the Painting
In One Canvas, You Might Find the Suggestion of Wings Formed by NEGATIVE Space. In Anotter, a Dark Spot Not Quite Shape Like a Crow, But Certainly Watching Like One. In a region, the Crow is Reduced to Shadow and Geometry, Part of the Struckure Itelf. It is present with form. It is the birth and the memory of the bird. Like GRIEF, Like Intuition, Like Something that Lives in You With Neding to Be Seen to Be Felt.
A Flight Toward Depth
This Exhibition is a milestone in the Artist’s Career. It is a window into the Unspoken; The Crow’s World, and ORS. In the Hands of Naja Keellos, Abstraction Deepens The Meaning. His textures are emotional SEDIMENT. His colors are not chosen: they arrive, they insist.
And thrive it all, the Crow Flies – Silently, Wisely, Never Alone.
