Njaimeh Njie (b. 1988. Pittsburgh, PA) is a multimedia artist telling stories about individual and community histories. Her work examines how relationships between place and people evolve over time to shape contemporary experiences and identities. She utilizes a lens-based practice to explore the visual and narrative possibilities of reimagining research, oral storytelling, and archives as public facing artworks.
Njie has had the opportunity to collaborate on projects in communities throughout Western Pennsylvania and beyond to Jackson, Mississippi, Paris, France, and Ireland. She has exhibited in spaces including the Mattress Factory and Silver Eye Center for Photography, and also presented at venues including TEDxPittsburgh Women, Brown University, and Harvard Graduate School of Design.
Njie’s work is included in the permanent collections of Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) and Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, and is displayed in permanently at the Pittsburgh International Airport. She earned her B.A in Film and Media Studies from Washington University in St. Louis in 2010.
Selected Work History
Select Exhibitions & Installations
2025 — Looking Up From Here Series, Pittsburgh International Airport, Pittsburgh, PA
2025 — Extinguish, Southside Contemporary Art Gallery, Richmond, VA
2025 — Narratives In Focus: Selections from PAMM’s Collection, Pérez Art Museum Miami, Miami, FL
2025 — Lifting Liberty (Solo), Kelly-Strayhorn Theater, Pittsburgh, PA
2024 — Another First Impression, Art Academy of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH
2023 — Flight Plans (Solo), Carlow University Art Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA
2022 — Across the Walls (Film), Carnegie Museum of Art - Carnegie International, Pittsburgh, PA
2022 — Stephen Towns: Declaration and Resistance (Film), The Westmoreland Museum of Art, Greensburg, PA
2021 — Radial Survey Vol. II: Inheritance, Silver Eye Center For Photography, Pittsburgh, PA
2021 — making home here, Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh, PA
2020 — Counterpressures, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA
2020 — Seeking Truth, Brew House Association, Pittsburgh, PA
2018-2019 — Homecoming: Hill District, USA, Various Locations, Pittsburgh, PA
2018 — On the Daily: Blackness in a Changing City (Solo), Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, Pittsburgh, PA
2017 — Songs of My People: 25 Years Later, Gallery 102, Washington D.C.
2015 — Power(ed) by Grace: Musings on Black Womanhood (Solo), BOOM Concepts, Pittsburgh, PA
Residencies, Grants, Awards, Commissions
2025 — Nicholson Project Residency, Washington D.C.
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
First-Person Essay, Public Source (2025)
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
WQED Pittsburgh — Beyond the Canvas: Njaimeh Njie
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