Sheila Nadimi works in a variety of media and is driven by an interest in the inherent properties of the material employed and the relationship between ideas and materials. Her paintings adhere to a commitment to abstraction and attempt to explore possibilities and freedom within very limited rules of engagement. Her drawings, collage and prints are treated as a place to explore and confront coexisting and contradictory interests; abstraction and representation, precise moments in time and the timeless, scratchy noise and silence. Her photos and videos are created with a vagrant documentary interest in failed utopias and the borderline conditions of particular locations. Images are rarely pre-conceived but assembled by filming from car and bus windows or standing on the street to capture what emerges in front of the lens. What unites the work across media is an interest in instability, movement and doubt.

Sheila Nadimi received a Bachelor’s degree in Geography at McGill University in Montreal, an MFA from Utah State University and a post-graduate diploma from the Arnhem Academy of Art in the Netherlands. She has received grants and awards for her work including the Canada Council for the Arts, the Netherlands Foundation for Visual Art, Design and Architecture and the Chicago-based Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts. Her work has been shown in Canada, the USA and Europe and she has participated in artist residencies including the Cooper Union, NYC, the Frans Masereel Centrum in Belgium, and Painting’s Edge in Idyllwild, California.

Sheila Nadimi currently lives and works in Montréal, Quebec.