Nadia Ahmed (she/her) is a Pakistani-American artist and arts administrator currently based in Seattle, WA. She moved from Los Angeles to Seattle in 2014, where she studied Art History and Three-Dimensional Forum at the University of Washington. Nadia’s exhibition history includes Mini Mart City Park, SOIL Gallery, The Vestibule, and Hedreen Gallery. She has been an artist in residence at Nii Modo and Inscape Arts, and is currently a resident artist at Actualize in Pioneer Square, Seattle. With a focus on community building and racial equity, Nadia has worked at multiple Seattle nonprofits and arts-based organizations. She is currently working as Communications Specialist at the City of Seattle’s Office of Arts & Culture.
Nadia’s practice explores how we process grief, deal with generational trauma, and express connection. She uses her artwork to document and investigate her family’s history and question what’s passed down through time. She is drawn to the use of familiar materials, like beeswax, text, and hair, questioning how the value of something changes depending on where or how it exists. Her work investigates the human relationship to time, examining the failure, pain, and distortion of memory. Something valuable that Nadia gets from her own work is a chance to connect with people in an exposed and intimate way.
