NIMAH GOBIR

My work explores how I came to inherit the complexities and nuances of my Black identity from my family. My figurative paintings capture the expressiveness of a face in reaction or at rest and how bodies accommodate and respond to other bodies in space. 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. Each painting expresses the way family members and loved ones’ relationships are reflected in one another and the way that their everyday habits shape and enliven their living spaces.

Composed with expressive brushwork, hand-stitched embroidery, and household textiles, my work layers multiple textures into intimate domestic portraits. My use of found fabrics evokes hand-me-down clothes, quilting material. The textiles intentionally feature repetitive patterns to mirror the way homes, relationships, and memory take on a banality while being uniquely dear to each person. 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.