
i`m counting the stairs
you may count the moments
i`m counting the stairs
you may count your breath
i`m counting the stairs
you may count your blinks
i`m counting the stairs
you may count your heartbeats
i`m counting the stairs
you may count your hairs
i`m counting the stairs
you may count your fingers
i`m counting the stairs
you may count your steps
i`m counting the stairs
you may count the man
i`m counting the stairs
you may count the walls, streets or stop signs
i`m counting the stairs
you may count the dead ends
i`m counting the stairs
you may count the gods
i`m counting the stairs
you may count the colors
i`m counting the stairs
you may count the rulers
i`m counting the stairs
you may count the right
i`m counting the stairs
you may count the left
i`m counting the stairs
you may count the political prisoners
i`m counting the stairs
you may count 12345678987654321
i`m counting the stairs
you may count the injured
i`m counting the stairs
you may count the killed
i`m counting the stairs
you may count the refugees
i`m counting the stairs
you may count the peas
i`m counting the stairs
you may count peace
i`m counting the stairs
you may count senses
i`m counting the stairs
you may count nonsenses
i`m counting the stairs
you may count the rich
i`m counting the stairs
you may count the broken bones
i`m counting the stairs
you may count the stairs too
i`m counting the stairs
you may count the stars

![]() WE ALL ARE SAFE HERE, 2022 curated by Hector Canonge Performance Art USA: IMPROMPTUS Festival, Brooklyn, New York Photo: Yolanda Duarte | ![]() WE ALL ARE SAFE HERE, 2022 curated by Hector Canonge Performance Art USA: IMPROMPTUS Festival, Brooklyn, New York Photo: Hector Canonge | ![]() WE ALL ARE SAFE HERE, 2022 curated by Hector Canonge Performance Art USA: IMPROMPTUS Festival, Brooklyn, New York Photo: Simla Civelek |
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![]() Untitled (she died for having the wind in her hair), 2022 Artist’s hair on canvas 40” x 70” | ![]() Untitled (an Iranian self-portrait), 2022 Photo: Kathryn Fjeld | ![]() Untitled (an Iranian self-portrait), 2022 Photo: Kathryn Fjeld |
![]() وَگیسُوانِ مان 2022 | ![]() وَ تنِ مان 2022 Photo: Kathryn Fjeld | ![]() وَدهانِ مان 2022 Photo: Kathryn Fjeld |
![]() I AM A WO[MAN] 2022 | ![]() Untitled (an Iranian self-portrait), 2022 Photo: Kathryn Fjeld | ![]() Untitled (an Iranian self-portrait), 2022 Photo: Amir Sharif |
![]() Let Me Out, performance still, 2021 West 14th Street, New York, NY AiOP Festival (Art in Odd 2021 Places: NORMAL) Photo: Sam Tarplin | ![]() Let Me Out, performance still, 2021 West 14th Street, New York, NY AiOP Festival (Art in Odd 2021 Places: NORMAL) Photo: Sam Tarplin | ![]() Let Me Out, performance still, 2021 West 14th Street, New York, NY AiOP Festival (Art in Odd 2021 Places: NORMAL) Photo: Sam Tarplin |
![]() Let Me Out, performance still, 2021 West 14th Street, New York, NY AiOP Festival (Art in Odd 2021 Places: NORMAL)Photo: Sam Tarplin | ![]() Let Me Out, performance still, 2021 West 14th Street, New York, NY AiOP Festival (Art in Odd 2021 Places: NORMAL) Photo: Sam Tarplin | ![]() Let Me Out, performance still, 2021 West 14th Street, New York, NY AiOP Festival (Art in Odd 2021 Places: NORMAL) Photo: Sam Tarplin |
![]() An Image of Confusion, performance still, March 2021 Photo: Kathryn Fjeld After 149 migrants (including children) were surprisingly escorted onto the U.S. Paso del Norte bridge and handed off to Mexican authorities, I covered my head with a mirrored cube and stood still on the crosswalk. | ![]() I am one, but I am one + one + one + one..., 2019 Art-Life piece (silent strike in protest to rejection of the FREE CAGED CHILDREN project) University of Massachusetts Amherst Photo: Sam Tarplin | ![]() I am one, but I am one + one + one + one..., 2019 Photo: Sam Tarplin |
![]() I am one, but I am one + one + one + one..., 2019 Photo: Sam Tarplin | ![]() Created in response to the bigotry, racism, and xenophobia made acceptable by the Trump administration and its violent immigration policies. Dear NOT American-American (detail), participatory performance-installation, 2019 | ![]() "Dear NOT American-American, compels the American audience to consider their identity with an ethnicity heretofore ‘unseen’: uniquely ‘American-American.’ … Only hyphenated, ‘impure’ Americans are invited to make their mark on the canvas built in the aspect ratio of the dollar bill.” Young Min Moon |
![]() Dear NOT American-American, participatory performance-installation, 2019 wherever i may be, the sky is mine (group exhibition) Curated by Young Min Moon Herter Gallery, University of Massachusetts Amherst | ![]() At a time of escalated military tensions between the U.S and Iran, my daughter and I (an Iranian family), and our neighbors (an American family), walked throughout NYC and stood still in different places. At each stop, we would leave our free hands open for the audience as an invitation to join the action. August, 2019, New York, NY Photo by an audience member: Lucia Bekes | ![]() Wake Me Up, performance still, 2018 Corner of 23rd St & Broadway, New York, NY Photo: Kelsi Giguere |
![]() Wake Me Up, performance still, 2018 Corner of 23rd St & Broadway, New York, NY Photo: Kelsi Giguere | ![]() Wake Me Up, performance still, 2018 Corner of 23rd St & Broadway, New York, NY Photo: Kelsi Giguere | ![]() Wake Me Up, performance still, 2018 Corner of 23rd St & Broadway, New York, NY Photo: Kelsi Giguere |
![]() The Sound of the Wind, sculptural installation, 2018 (post-rejection piece of I’ll dance with you in the wind) ALTER/ALTAR (group exhibition) Herter Gallery, University of Massachusetts Amherst Photo: Kelsi Giguere | ![]() The Sound of the Wind (detail), sculptural installation, 2018 Photo: Kelsi Giguere | ![]() The Sound of the Wind, sculptural installation, 2018 Photo: Kelsi Giguere |
![]() The Sound of the Wind, sculptural installation, 2018 Photo: Kelsi Giguere | ![]() The Sound of the Wind, sculptural installation, 2018 Photo: Kelsi Giguere | ![]() The Sound of the Wind (detail), sculptural installation, 2018 Photo: Kelsi Giguere |
![]() The Sound of the Wind (detail), sculptural installation, 2018 Photo: Kelsi Giguere |
Nima Nikakhlagh is a multidisciplinary artist, native to Iran, who arrived in the United States in 2014. He is currently living and raising his daughter in Western Massachusetts. His practice concerns itself with socio-political power dynamics, political resistance, and non-violent action approached in a poetic manner. Notably, he studied photography and film with Abbas Kiarostami over the course of several years and recently received his MFA in Studio Arts from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Nima's works have appeared/been performed in Tehran (two consecutive years at the annual Performance Art Festival Thirty Performances, Thirty Artists, Thirty Days 2013, and 2014); San Francisco Art Institute (2016); AiOP Festival (Art in Odd Places 2021: NORMAL) in New York City; the International VIDEOFORMES Festival (2022) in Clermont-Ferrand, France; the Modern and Contemporary Art Gallery in Torino, Italy (2022); Art Active Gallery in Passau, Germany (2022); Wild Out Video Festival in Taiwan (2022); PAUSA: IMPROMPTUS (a live performance program) in New York City (2022); and Fine Arts Gallery in Landmark College, Vermont. He recently published his first literary-performative book Bodies, Languages, Truths. Nima is presently a Lecturer and Director of the Herter Art Gallery at UMass Amherst.
Contact:
nimanikakhlaghstudio@gmail.com
© 2023 Nima Nikakhlagh