visual art

NEXT -- Live Painting Performance 8/20/2026 at Arts on Site - 12 St Marks NY, 6:30 and 8:30 PM --

For Fadi Joseph Khoury, painting and choreography are inseparable artistic languages. As a contemporary choreographer, visual artist, and Artistic Director of FJK Dance, his creative practice is rooted in the expressive potential of the human body. Every movement leaves an invisible trace in space, and through painting, those traces become visible. His abstract expressionist works capture the energy, rhythm, and emotional architecture of movement, transforming dance into color, line, texture, and form.

Inspired by the body's capacity to communicate beyond words, Khoury's paintings explore the intersection of gesture and emotion. Dynamic brushstrokes, layered compositions, and bold color relationships evoke the sensation of movement in motion—revealing the invisible choreography that exists within every human experience. Each canvas reflects a dialogue between physicality and imagination, inviting viewers to experience movement as both a visual and emotional landscape.

While his acrylic paintings are available as standalone works on canvas, Khoury's visual art is most powerfully realized in performance. Throughout FJK Dance productions, painting becomes a live artistic act, unfolding simultaneously with choreography. His theatrical works integrate live painting, projection mapping, animation, and immersive lighting design, creating environments where dance and visual art evolve together in real time. Rather than serving as scenery, the artwork becomes an active performer—responding to movement and shaping the audience's emotional journey.

Across every medium—dance, painting, installation, and public art—Khoury's work asks a simple yet profound question: How can movement inspire healing, connection, and transformation?

MURAL

PATIENT’S PATHWAY - KINGS COUNTY HOSPITAL

As Artist-in-Residence at NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County, Khoury is currently creating his first large-scale public mural, Patient's Pathway, spanning the underground corridor that connects six buildings across the Brooklyn hospital campus.

Drawing from his signature abstract expressionist style, Patient's Pathway transforms movement into a visual language of healing. Sweeping gestures, layered textures, and vibrant color relationships evoke the emotional and physical journey of patients, families, caregivers, and hospital staff—one defined by uncertainty, resilience, compassion, and hope.

Created directly onto the walls using acrylic paint, the mural is designed to encourage a sense of forward movement and optimism while offering moments of calm within a transitional environment. Rather than relying on representational imagery, the work embraces abstraction to create an uplifting atmosphere that is open to personal interpretation. It celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and reflects the hospital's commitment to integrating art into spaces of healing, wellness, and community.

PERFORMANCE ART

Visual art intersect with dance

Off Limits (Interactive Solo Edition) Created and Performed by Fadi Joseph Khoury

Off Limits (Interactive Solo Edition) is a one-hour live painting and dance performance designed specifically for art galleries, museums, and public art spaces. Adapted from the full-length theatrical production created by FJK Dance, this solo format maintains the emotional and conceptual arc of the stage work while offering a flexible, immersive experience accessible to wider and more diverse audiences.

The performance unfolds in two distinct sets. The first set, presented entirely in black and white, explores restriction, conformity, and the tension between authenticity and social expectation. Through live abstract expressionist painting and contemporary dance, Khoury embodies the immigrant journey toward belonging—often marked by compromise and the silencing of one’s true self. The body moves as the brush moves; line becomes choreography, and gesture becomes mark.

The second set introduces color as a symbol of integration, healing, and reclaimed identity. As pigment enters the canvas, the movement vocabulary expands—drawing from contemporary dance, ballet extensions, ballroom partnering, and Middle Eastern folkloric influences. The transformation from monochrome to color represents emotional liberation and the courage to live authentically.

Originally conceived during the 2020 lockdown, Off Limits emerged from solitude. Painting became a meditative practice through which Khoury processed isolation and displacement. The lines he drew were physical memories—movements reaching outward for connection. The project evolved into a signature FJK Dance work, supported by the CUNY Dance Initiative (2022), previewed at New York Live Arts, and premiered at On Stage at Kingsborough in Brooklyn.

Music may be performed live (piano, cello, percussion) or through recorded compositions by Claude Debussy, Gaspar Cassadó, and original works by Gilbert Mansour with electronic sound design by Mal Stein.

By bringing Off Limits into gallery environments, this interactive edition dissolves barriers between the performer, canvas, and audience—expanding cross-cultural dialogue and transforming art spaces into living, breathing sites of movement, reflection, and shared humanity.

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