Bio
Njaimeh Njie (b. 1988. Pittsburgh, PA) is a multimedia artist. Working across photography, film, installation, and public art, her practice centers everyday Black people, narratives, and landscapes. Focusing particularly on how the past shapes the present, Njie’s work consistently archival research, oral history collection, as well as nonfiction writing. She has spearheaded and collaborated on documentary projects in communities including Pittsburgh, Jackson, Mississippi, Paris, and Northern Ireland.
Njie is the author of the photobook, This Is Where We Find Ourselves (2021), and her work has been featured in many publications. She has presented in spaces including TEDxPittsburgh Women, Brown University, and Harvard University, in addition to exhibiting work locally and nationally. Her work is included in the permanent collections of the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, as well as many private collections. In addition to her art practice Njie is the Founder/Lead Producer of the nonfiction storytelling company Eleven Stanley Productions, and she earned her B.A in Film and Media Studies from Washington University in St. Louis in 2010.
Selected Work History
Exhibitions
2023—Carlow University Art Gallery, Flight Plans (Solo), Pittsburgh, PA
2021 — Silver Eye Center For Photography, Radial Survey Vol. II: Inheritance, Pittsburgh, PA
2021 — The Mattress Factory, making home here, Pittsburgh, PA
2020 — Carnegie Museum of Art, Counterpressures, Pittsburgh, PA
2020—Brew House Association, Seeking Truth, Pittsburgh, PA
2018 — Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, On the Daily: Blackness in a Changing City (Solo), Pittsburgh, PA
2017 — Gallery 102, Songs of My People: 25 Years Later, Washington D.C.
2015 — BOOM Concepts, Power(ed) by Grace: Musings on Black Womanhood (Solo), Pittsburgh, PA
Installations
2021—Centre Avenue YMCA, All Roads Lead to the Y, Pittsburgh, PA
2019 — Pittsburgh International Airport, Up, Lifted, Pittsburgh, PA
2018-2019—Various Locations, Homecoming: Hill District, USA, Pittsburgh, PA
Filmography
2022 — Heinz Hall, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, As I Please, Pittsburgh, PA
2022 — Carnegie Museum of Art, Carnegie International, Across the Walls, Pittsburgh, PA
2022 — The Westmoreland Museum of Art, Stephen Towns: Declaration and Resistance (Film), Greensburg, PA
Residencies, Grants, Awards, Commissions
2022 — Silver List Selected Artist
2021-22 — Edward Mitchell Bannister Artist in Residence, Brown University, Providence, RI
2021 — Fountainhead Residency, Miami, FL
2020 — Remote Artist in Residence, Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University
2020 — Chatham University Artist/Scholar in Residence
2019 — Duquesne University/August Wilson House Fellow
2019 — Brew House Association Distillery 10 Cohort
2019 — The Heinz Endowments and The Pittsburgh Foundation, Investing in Professional Artists Grantee
2018 – Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, Emerging Artist of the Year
2018 – The Creative Industries Network, Creator of the Year
2017, 2015 – Advancing Black Arts in Pittsburgh Grantee
2016 – Pittsburgh Office of Public Art, Temporary Placemaking and Public Art Commission
2016 – New Pittsburgh Courier 40 Under 40
Selected Texts & Talks
This Is Where We Find Ourselves (2021)
Dispatches from the Rust Belt: Volume III (2020) — “Tracing Water, Memory, and Change”
TEDxPittsburgh Women, “Recording Our History Matters” (2019)
Carnegie Magazine — “On Creating and Defining Ourselves”
Black in the Middle: An Anthology of the Black Midwest —”Tracing water, memory, and change: Black experiences along and near Route 65”
Belt Magazine — “Tracing water, memory, and change: Black experiences along and near Route 65”
Dispatches from the Rust Belt: Volume II (2019) — “Preserving Black Artists’ Legacies in Pittsburgh”
Carnegie Museum of Art Storyboard – “Defying the Erasure and Misrepresentation of Black Womanhood”
Selected Press
90.5 WESA — Prison Reform, Community Art the Focus of Local Contributions to the 58th Carnegie International
90.5 WESA — Photographer’s Book Evokes History in Pittsburgh’s Black Communities
Pittsburgh City Paper — 2019 Visual Arts Person of the Year
CityLab — A Homecoming Through Art for Pittsburgh’s Historic Hill District
90.5 WESA — Artist Completes Public Work Celebrating Hill District’s Residents
h Magazine — Art Imitating Life
90.5 WESA — Pittsburgh Photographer And Filmmaker Named Emerging Artist of the Year
The Incline — Who’s Next: Art
Jenesis Magazine — On a Mission: Eleven Stanley Productions Founder Njaimeh Njie
Ace Hotel Blog — Pittsburgh: Njaimeh Njie
Contact: nmnjie@gmail.com