Before the world had eyes it was simply smiling. Its smile, however, was internal and no one knew what it meant. But in the blink of an eye this smile transformed into a grin, a grimace, a guise behind which the world could hide. The paintings, silk screens and drawings of Elias Njima form the stage for this returning central figure: a subject that has turned its gaze inward; a mocking face, an impenetrable surface. If the portrait was the first painterly gesture, why, Njima askes, do we paint? Njima traces portraiture back to a three-thousand-year old South African pitted pebble or the chalky outlines of a love story from ancient Rome. Imagination turns out not to be a creative act of desire, but a claustrophobic tendency to project familiarity on everything strange and unknown. In result, the face becomes a pre-linguistic sign in which we hope to recover that very moment before we ourselves had eyes. – Jasper Coppes
10.2016–02.2017
Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst (HGB)
Erasmus+ program
Leipzig (DE) 2014–2018
Gerrit Rietveld Academie
Fine Arts Department
Amsterdam (NL) 2009–2013
Centre professionel Arts Appliqués (CFPAA)
Graphic Design
Geneva (CH)
09.2013 Une saison en Enfer BAC (Bâtiment d’Art Contemporain) Geneva (CH) 01.2017
Zum Zoom Zoum, Gapgap Gallery Leipzig (DE) 03.2017 What is happening to our brain? Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (NL) 02.2018 No Pain, No Gain Clermont-Ferrand (FR) 02.2018
Siete y Medio
Supersimetrica
Madrid (ES) 05.2018
Dialogic Monologues
M4 gastatelier Amsterdam (NL) 08.2018 Best of Graduates 2018 Galerie Ron Mandos Amsterdam (NL) 02.2019
Leaving in Studio Agatha Studio Agatha Amsterdam (NL) 05.2019 Bad Posters Fanfare /b/channel w/ Plǝt- Amsterdam (NL) 11.2019
Solo Exhibition
Galerie Joghem
Amsterdam (NL) 04.2020
Duo Exhibition (with Maxime Favre)
Galleri Høy
Høyanger (NO) 09.2021
Stiff Neck
Giulietta
Basel (CH) 09.2021
Co.fabulations for sense in Love + Leif
Tv do Ferraz 13
Porto (PT) 2021
I Want You So Bad
Soul2Soul
Geneva (CH) 2022
La théorie de l'arrêt de bus
Gallery Ann Mazzotti
Basel (CH) 2023
Salon d'hiver
Espace Labo
Geneva (CH)
Boulevard des Immobiles
Galleri KANT
Copenhagen (DK)
Vivre et mourir en Paréidolie
Zabriskie Point/Limbo
Geneva (CH)
