I paint what is directly before me—unremarkable, everyday moments that drift past like background noise. In reaction to the endless flood of images, I search for certainties, trusting that by reinterpreting what I see (so much that I don’t see it anymore) something interesting will emerge. My work is a practice of seeing, where recognition transforms the ordinary into something worth keeping.Elias Njima
Elias Njima was born in 1994 in Geneva, Switzerland, to a Swiss mother and a Moroccan father, and he continues to live and work in his hometown. He began his artistic journey studying graphic design at the Centre professionnel Arts Appliqués (CFPAA) in Geneva before moving to Amsterdam in 2014, where he pursued a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, graduating in 2018. He also participated in the Erasmus+ program at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst (HGB) in Leipzig, Germany, in 2016–2017, further expanding his exposure to European contemporary practices.
During his time in the Netherlands, Njima developed a distinctive pictorial language that blends contemporary influences from his immediate environment with cultural references drawn from his countries of origin, including the works of Marguerite Burnat-Provins, Thierry Vernet, and Farid Belkahia, alongside European artists such as Léon Spilliaert and Paula Modersohn-Becker. His work is inspired by stories in his immediate surroundings, whether personal, overheard, or encountered through literature, cinema, and poetry, which he often combines to create images that evoke an uncanny sense of familiarity.
Njima’s practice has been presented in numerous solo and group exhibitions at institutions and galleries, including Galerie Ann Mazzotti in Basel, Zabriskie Point/Limbo in Geneva, and Galleri KANT in Copenhagen. His work is characterized by a quiet tension between the ordinary and the poetic, the personal and the universal, capturing unremarkable, everyday moments and transforming them through careful observation and painterly interpretation.
Since returning to Geneva at the end of 2020, he has expanded his research into sculpture, particularly ceramics, while continuing to develop his painting and etching practice. Njima’s oeuvre invites viewers to reconsider the familiar through the lens of his subtle, imaginative visual narratives, where recognition transforms the everyday into something worth keeping.
Since returning to Geneva at the end of 2020, he has expanded his research into sculpture, particularly ceramics, while continuing to develop his painting and etching practice. Njima’s oeuvre invites viewers to reconsider the familiar through the lens of his subtle, imaginative visual narratives, where recognition transforms the everyday into something worth keeping.