Nicky Nodjoumi
The Personal Is Political
and 
present
NICKY NODJOUMI
The Personal Is Political
In conversation with DR. LAYLA S. DIBA
A live virtual talk recorded on December 14, 2024, featuring the remarkable Iranian contemporary artist Nicky Nodjoumi in conversation with esteemed scholar and curator Dr. Layla S. Diba. Together, they will dive into Nodjoumi’s groundbreaking solo exhibition, NICKY NODJOUMI: THE PERSONAL IS POLITICAL, currently on view at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco through March 23, 2025.
This conversation invites audiences to further learn about Nodjoumi’s powerful, surreal paintings, which use bold, kaleidoscopic imagery to reveal the nuanced and often unsettling realities of political power and its influence on the human experience. Join us for a conversation of rich insights and visual storytelling, as Nodjoumi and Dr. Diba unpack the artist’s distinctive style and the deeper narratives woven into his art.
Learn more about the current exhibition at YBCA
About Nicky Nodjoumi
Nicky Nodjoumi was born in Kermanshah, Iran in 1942. After earning a Bachelor’s degree in Art from Tehran University of Fine Arts, Nodjoumi relocated to the United States in the late 1960s, where he received his Master’s degree in Fine Arts from The City College of New York in 1974. Following his graduation, he returned to Tehran to join the faculty of his alma mater, where he continued to engage in political protest, an activity that has been foundational to his work across decades. He began designing political posters inspired by the revolutionary spirit sweeping the country, only to be exiled once more in the aftermath of the 1979 revolution. Nodjoumi’s political engagement has continued to the present day. Nodjoumi’s works are in several prominent institutional collections worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the British Museum in London, Guggenheim Museum in Abu Dhabi, the DePaul Art Museum in Chicago, and the National Museum of Cuba. The artist lives and works in Brooklyn and is represented by ADVOCARTSY gallery in Los Angeles.
About Dr. Layla S. Diba
Layla S. Diba is an independent art advisor, scholar and curator specializing in the art of 19th and 20th century Iran. Herself of Iranian-American heritage, she has devoted her career to increasing understanding between Iranians and Americans through the arts.
She held the post of Director and Chief Curator of the Negarestan Museum of 18th and 19th century Iranian Art in Tehran from its inception in 1975 until 1978. Under her leadership, the holdings of the museum increased from a few hundred items to more than three thousand artworks. After moving to the United States in 1979, she obtained her doctorate from The Institute of Fine Arts, NYU and became the Brooklyn Museum of Art’s Curator of Islamic Art from 1990-2000. During her tenure, she organized the highly successful exhibition, Royal Persian Paintings: The Qajar Epoch (1785-1925), the first major international presentation on 18th and 19th century Persian art and culture.
Subsequently, she continued her advisory and scholarly activities with other major American Institutions and foundations, including the Encyclopedia Iranica Foundation, the Farhang Foundation, the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Museum and the National Endowment for the Humanities. She also mentors many young scholars who turn to her as a resource for documenting modern Iranian art history.
In 2013-14 Dr. Diba co-curated the groundbreaking exhibition Iran Modern at Asia Society Museum in New York and coedited the accompanying publication. Her publications on Iranian 19th and 20th century art include three monographs and over fifty scholarly articles. She is also a popular media personality and expert on Iranian art and culture, participating in programs such as two BBC Persian historical series, and the 2021 Roqe podcast on 20th century Iranian History.
Dr. Diba currently sits on the Board of The Soudavar Memorial Foundation and on the Visiting Committee of the Islamic Art Department of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Former Board positions included The Encyclopedia Iranica Foundation and The National Museum of Asian Art, Charles Lang Freer and Arthur M. Sackler Galleries, Washington D.C.
Current projects include the publications: Inventing the Modern Iranian Landscape: Kamal al Molk’s Paintings of Qajar Iran and Art in Peril: The Case of the Negarestan Museum and its Collections of 18th and 19th century Iranian Art.
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