Against gravity
Photographs by Jila Nikpay
February 8, 2001
The Iranian
Born in Tehran, Jila Nikpay came to U.S. in 1973 to study at University
of Minnesota. She earned a B.F.A. in Studio Arts and M.A. in photojournalism
and taught photography in Minneapolis for more than a decade. Since 1980,
Nikpay's work has been featured in many solo and group exhibitions. Her
most recent solo show was at the Print Center in Philadelphia.
A recipient of numerous awards for her photographs, her recent work,
"Against Gravity," has been awarded fellowships by the McKnight
foundation and the State of Minnesota.
In "Against Gravity," her psychological landscapes portray
a world of silhouette, memory, nightmare, and dream. Drawing from her experience
as a displaced person, Nikpay infuses her theatrical sets with potent emotions
of sadness and hope, with an eye towards creating a universal narrative.
The poetry of light and life in Nikpay's photographs allude to the fact
that displacement is a modern life phenomenon: For Nikpay, the same paradoxical
interplay of fear and hope lay dormant in the interior landscapes of the
self-reliant modern man.
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