Better dey come

Johansson Projects presents Better Dey Come, a solo exhibition by Nimah Gobir. Combining painting, photo transfer, fabric, and embroidery, Gobir blends memories across time and geography by drawing inspiration from her Nigerian heritage and upbringing in California. Peppered with personal ephemera such as handed-down cloth and family photo albums, Gobir’s work is rooted in domesticity and connection, sifting through the nuances of Black identity while referencing her specific familial experiences. Utilizing quilting cottons, and at times more ceremonial African wax prints, Gobir patches together a synthetic family history that is both widely recognizable and utterly specific. Compounded with the incorporation of personal photographs from the 1980s and 90s into her painted interiors, her work interrogates the nature of portraiture, memory, and nostalgia through intimate representations of family life. Gobir explores these thorough lines across generations, finding resonance among her current daily rituals, childhood, and family’s past: braiding hair, sitting for a meal, washing dishes, posing for a group picture. Her mixed-media work collapses time and space, leaving the viewer in a kaleidoscope of memories that diffuse into the present moment. 

Better Dey Come runs from September 13th to October 18th with an artist walk-through and reception on Thursday, October 2nd at 5 p.m.

For all inquiries, contact Johansson Projects at 510-444-9140 or info@johanssonprojects.com

The Bold Italic “Florals for FOG Design+Art Gala 2025” by Vita Hewitt | January 27,  2025
“But the real surprise came when I spotted Nimah Gobir’s painting, Uncle, a mix of oil paint, photo transfer, fabric, and embroidery thread on canvas, held my attention for an uncomfortably long time. It was both hyper-real and painterly — the narrative unfolding through the tension between representation and abstraction.” LINK

48hills “FOG art fair elevates artists in triumph–and tragedy” by Emily Wilson | January 24, 2025

“…Gobir, currently an artist in residence at Recology and formerly an Emerging Artist at the Museum of the African Diaspora, is showing works at the fair based on family photos her dad took in the ’90s. She tried something new and is happy with the way it turned out.” LINK

Recology “Artist in Residence Exhibitions” by Weston Teruya | December 16, 2024
“Home is not a static place, it is a space that is made and remade, opened up, and where stories can be imagined.” LINK

CanvasRebel “Meet Nimah Gobir” | August 2, 2023
“Through scenes of my sister and I getting our hair braided as children or my parents posed on a couch covered in the patina of early adulthood, I contend with the enduring results of diaspora and the renewal of belonging to a home.” LINK

48hills “Home is?” Women of color tangle with question in pair of memorable museum shows | July 28, 2023
“…Gobir’s “Tender Headed” series, depicting subjects having their hair braided. The unbraided hair is painted on the canvas, whilst the braids themselves are a kaleidoscope of colored threads stretching from an image on one wall to an image the next. It’s funny how tangled threads from several different paintings can trigger a visceral memory that makes the series title all the more real.” LINK

48hills “How Human We Are”: Nimah Gobir Expands the Space of Black Love | August 10, 2022
“Big influences come in small packages, sometimes. Painter Nimah Gobir’s first memories of art-making are of her dad creating two-page, hand drawn flipbooks. They usually brought to life things like a person walking or a butterfly flapping its wings, and Gobir remembers thinking that they were magical. She’s held onto that belief about the mystic powers of art ever since.” LINK

SF/Arts, “Sophie Treppendahl: Homebody & Nimah Gobir: Spools,” Mark Taylor, SF/Arts Curator | May 30, 2022
“Brightly colored wallpaper, a blanket made of crochet granny squares, post-dinner party mess, a bathroom sink cluttered with personal care products, sunlight bathing the uncleared breakfast dishes, a pile of open art books — the stuff of life. Sophie Treppendahl’s paintings capture the colorful existence of a shut-in trapped by the pandemic who has decided to focus on all that remains after so much has been stripped away. Her work pairs seamlessly with Nimah Gobir’s portraits, which have the snapshot feel of vivid memory. A couple reclining on an overstuffed sofa. Grandma proudly holding up a new baby. A girl in plaid school uniform smiling shyly. A man peacefully soaking in life with eyes closed.”  LINK

Hyperallergic, “Enter the Universe of Black Womxn Artists in the Bay Area” | February 1, 2022
“When I heard that  The Black Woman Is God was back on in person, I strapped on my mask and headed across the Bay Bridge to San Francisco. Now in its seventh year and its fifth iteration at  SOMArts Cultural Center, this annual showcase of Black womxn visual artists is a staple of Black Bay Area culture…”  LINK

Bad at Sports Podcast, “Samantha Reynolds, Nimah Gobir, Guta Galli and Katherine Vetne” | Oct 21, 2020
“This week Ryan & Brian chat with Samantha Reynolds, Nimah Gobir, Guta Galli and Katherine Vetne about Until it Shatters, an exhibition at Root Division in conjunction with the Feminist Art Coalition that opens this election day.” LINK

The Process Podcast, “Nimah Gobir on the nature of identity in art” | October, 2019
“Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Nimah Gobir creates art that explores her identity as a black woman. Through paintings and installations, her work teases out both the nuances and shared experiences of being black.”  LINK

Nimah Gobir (b. 1993 in Los Angeles, CA) is an artist and educator based in Oakland, California. She earned her B.F.A. in Studio Art and B.A. in Peace Studies from Chapman University before pursuing an M.Ed. at Harvard Graduate School of Education, specializing in Arts in Education. Through paintings and installations, her work explores the nuanced tapestry of Black identity. Drawing inspiration from familial and personal archives, she creates figurative works that capture the ways loved ones are reflected in one another and illustrate how their everyday habits shape their living spaces. Her artistic process extends beyond conventional mediums to embrace expressive brushwork, hand-stitched embroidery, and a fusion of household textiles. Her creative endeavors have been highlighted in Hyperallergic, 48Hills, and SF/Arts. In 2020, she completed a fellowship with Emerging Artist Professionals SF-Bay Area. Gobir has shown work at Root Division, Johansson Projects, SOMArts, and the Museum of the African Diaspora, where she was selected to be part of their Emerging Artist Program. Additionally, Gobir was the 2024-2025 recipient of the Tournesol Award at Headlands Center for the Arts, part of Recology’s 2024 artist in residence cohort, and a finalist for the fourth edition of the Bennett Prize. She was recently selected as a 2026-2028 Fleishacker Foundation Eureka Fellow, will be a spring 2026 resident at Anderson Ranch in Colorado, and has an upcoming solo exhibition at ICA San José. With future projects poised to further amplify her artistic voice, she continues to weave together threads of memory, identity, and resilience in her work. She is in the permanent collection at The Crocker Museum.

CV

My work traces the complexity and nuance of Black identity through the rich tapestry of my family’s history. Artworks source my siblings’ and Nigerian-born parents’ memories while honoring their individual experiences and essential humanity. I draw from personal and autobiographical histories to imbue paintings with images that are at once tender and powerful.  Using expressive brushwork, hand-stitched embroidery, and a fusion of household textiles, I layer multiple textures into domestic portraits that uplift cultural memory. In each painting, I capture the ways family members and loved ones are reflected in one another, illustrating how their everyday habits shape and enliven their living spaces.

By integrating fabric and sewing techniques, I capture the intangible threads that bind us to our roots and connect us across generations. Hand stitching on the canvas is a symbolic action that represents weaving together the narratives of past and present. My process speaks to the labor of love inherent in the familial relationships depicted, as well as the vibrance and intimacy woven into the fabric of collective history. Through this tactile and meticulous practice, I honor the stories imprinted in the material culture of my family and celebrate the tenderness inherent in craftsmanship. The presence of found textiles in my work, with their repetitive patterns, communicates the banal yet uniquely precious aspects of homes, relationships, and memories. These layered compositions evoke a sense of familiarity, akin to the embrace of hand-me-down clothes or the warmth of a cherished quilt. 

My artwork is a unique visual language that invites viewers to engage in a dialogue about the intricate strata of identity, belonging, and the ever-evolving nature of home. My practice illuminates the universal truths embedded in the specificity of my Black identity, fostering connections and understanding that transcend cultural boundaries. The scenes depicted, whether moments of shared connection or quiet contemplation, serve as windows into the interplay of joy, struggle, and resilience within the diasporic experience. Through paintings of my sister and I getting our hair braided as children or my parents posed on a couch covered in the patina of early adulthood, I contend with the enduring results of diaspora and the renewal of belonging to a home.