Niga is a Kurdish artist, curator, and researcher based in Sulaymaniyah, Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Working across mediums such as photography, moving image, installation, and curatorial practice, their work explores questions of identity, gender, memory, place, and the social and political conditions that shape everyday life.
With a background in photography and an expanding practice in contemporary art and curation, Niga approaches art as a space for questioning rather than providing fixed answers. Their artistic practice often examines how personal experiences can provoke broader social and political structures, using visual and spatial language to create critical questions.
Niga’s works as curator revolve around developing the relationship between artwork, space, place, and context. Their curatorial approach is attentive to the layered histories and conditions of a particular place and time, bringing together different forms of artistic expression to create exhibitions that function not simply as displays, but as experiences. They are interested in curating as a form of critical and artistic practice in itself.
Niga has participated in and curated exhibitions, programmes, and residencies internationally, with projects presented in Kurdistan, Germany, Lebanon, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States, including work presented at the United Nations. Their practice also involves collaboration with artists, cultural organisations, and communities, with a particular interest in creating spaces for voices and experiences that are often marginalised or underrepresented.
In 2026, Salam completed an MA in Curation: Contemporary Art and Cultural Management at the University of Exeter. Their current practice continues to move between art-making, curating, research, and cultural production, with a particular interest in the cultural ecosystems that emerge within Kurdistan.
For Niga, art is a means of asking questions, creating connections, and making space for alternative ways of seeing and understanding the world. In a sense questioning for the sake of deeper understanding.
