Michael Khoury
Between Echoes
Gallery on Queen began 10 years ago, born from Nadia and Michael Khoury’s desire to start an alternative platform for local artists. Since then, it has evolved into a vibrant cultural space supporting artistic creators from across the country. This landmark exhibition celebrates the gallery co-founder’s prolific art career, which flourished alongside his years of dedication and contributions to the gallery's operations.
Between Echoes traces key moments across themes and decades of Michael Khoury’s artistic practice. Intimate portraits and figurative works will hang alongside expressive domestic settings, with some on view to the public for the very first time. Michael is best known for illuminating still lifes and figures with unapologetic brushwork and maintains a deep connection to place. Following over two decades in the retail fashion industry with Nadia,
he has developed a visual language informed by New Brunswick’s landscapes, the symbolic resonance of Lebanese domestic spaces, and the street life of Paris, where he has spent much of his time.
While he draws inspiration from his immediate surroundings, the thematic and formal qualities are influenced by his heritage. Many of these paintings are shaped by relationships with his wife, his children, and, particularly, his late mother and maternal figures throughout his life. His ornate painting techniques pay homage to the legacy of pivotal art movements from Southwest Asia and North Africa that have shaped his sensibility and the art world.
Video and Editing Credits: Charles Pan
Michael Khoury (b. 1950, Lebanon) is a visual artist based in New Brunswick. Over forty years, he has developed a prolific painting and photography practice that explores the natural and built environments. Following his 22 years in retail fashion, he studied privately under the late Molly Lamb Bobak, when he developed a unique language informed by the poetic landscapes of New Brunswick, shifting light, and the symbolic resonance of Lebanese domestic and sacred spaces. His early works were quietly radical, challenging artistic conventions emerging from the Maritimes, weaving themes of heritage, symbolism, and cultural longing, while preserving real lived experiences in New Brunswick. Khoury’s works contribute to the growing cultural infrastructure of New Brunswick’s art history by documenting Lebanese heritage in the Maritimes.
Khoury’s works are held in notable public and private collections, including the Presidential Palace of Togo, Africa; the 2003 Canadian Ambassador to France, Raymond Chrétien; The Honourable Frank McKenna, former Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations; the University of New Brunswick Art Centre; and Jeunesse Musicales. He has exhibited internationally including, but not limited to, Galerie Kastel Gallery (Montreal, QC); Gallery Ehden (Lebanon); Andrew and Laura McCain Gallery (Florenceville, N.B.); Hollander York Gallery (Toronto, ON); Whistler Village Art Gallery (Whistler, B.C.); Aitken Bicentennial Exhibition Centre; (Saint John,
N.B.); Beaverbrook Art Gallery (Fredericton N.B.); FUNF Gallery (Montreal, QC) and Gallery on Queen (Fredericton, N.B.).
