Concerns surrounding scale, anatomy, identity, anxiety, and loss traverse Kanaan's works. Through text and functional sculpture in particular, he plays with these themes in an autobiographical frame.

Kanaan’s work consists of little feelings, compartmentalized affects, and repressed emotions. Poetics guide his approach to furniture and architectural forms; maintaining a romantic and tragic anticipation of the bodies that will interact with the work. There is always translation, expression, implication, or repression. His text work and poetry address syntax and love, exploring how spatial relationships affect them.

Some exhibitions in which he has participated include: 《A sudden and peculiar pleasure》 at Mana Contemporary in Chicago (2017); 《MFA Show》 at the Art Institute of Chicago (2016); 《We Died and Here We Are》 at the Beirut Arts Center in Beirut (2016); 《Swinging Minds, Unfolded Senses》, LeRoy Neiman Center, Chicago, USA (2015); 《Snow Show》,Rzeplinski, Brooklyn, USA (2016); 《Not at the Beach》 at the Green point Gallery in New York (2015); 《Noche de Cortos》,Nixon Gallery, Mexico City, Mexico (2017). He has been invited to take part in the Casa Wabi residency program in Oaxaca, Mexico, Beirut Art Residency in Beirut and Palazzo Monti in Italy.