NImah Gobir
Nimah Gobir (b. 1993 in Los Angeles, CA) is an artist and educator based in Oakland, California. Through paintings and installations, her work primarily explores the nuances and shared experiences of being Black. She draws on text and photo references collected from both family and personal archives. Gobir completed her undergraduate studies at Chapman University with a B.F.A. in Studio Art and B.A. in Peace Studies. She has an M.Ed from Harvard Graduate School of Education with a focus in Arts in Education. In 2020, she completed a fellowship with Emerging Artist Professionals SF-Bay Area. She has shown work at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, SOMArts, The Growlery (San Francisco), Root Division (San Francisco) where she was awarded the Blau-Gold Studio/Teaching fellowship, the Museum of African Diaspora (San Francisco) and Johansson Projects (Oakland).
Holding Space, Nimah Gobir at the Museum of African Diaspora | Summer 2023
Holding Space unveils a collection of intimate paintings that consider home, interiority, and belonging in the context of diasporic narratives. Through depictions of her family members and loved ones in everyday situations, Holding Space pauses for a poetic reflection on placemaking.
Embroidery, pattern, and textile motifs convey the layered expressive textures inherent to family homes. This exhibition is a meditation on how homes are places that hold secrets, histories, and vestiges of loved ones.
“Being an artist is one of the ways I can be close to magic every day.”
“Nimah’s artwork transcends space and reality by picking you up and placing you in a moment; a memory. Each piece in this collection is a captivating combination of precise brush strokes, soothing color palettes, and skillfully stitched thread; all weaved together to tell a familiar story— Perhaps a childhood memory long forgotten and playfully awakened, or the warmth of being loved by someone you care for. As a fellow young black girl, when I look at her work I see more than representation: I see a true mirror of my own experiences, familial roots, and childhood joy. Nimah’s tireless dedication to her work and developing her craft is a testament to her strength and creative abilities.”
Video short by Jaminh Alcorn (IG @woozygoldie) in collaboration with Johansson Projects
“A lot of it [my art practice] is processing; processing our past and what things were like for my parents when they were my age. Everything that I deal with in my paintings involves family and the home, so it does feel like this really cozy process. Just like my parents raising me seemed to be like a labor of love, and making our way is kind of this loving act.”
-Nimah Gobir
About the Artist
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.
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 recently selected to be part of Recology’s 2024 artist in residence cohort. With upcoming 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.