Seattle, WA
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bio
Nikki Jabbora - Barber (she/her), a gay Seattle-based printmaker and teaching artist, was born in Bellingham, WA to a Lebanese-German mother and Anglo-Swedish father. Her work focuses on her mixed race identity, centuries of storytelling, and womanhood through symbolic depictions of herself, flora, and fauna.
Nikki regularly teaches visual art classes in the greater Seattle area, including at Pratt Fine Arts Center, Coyote Central, Pilchuck Glass School, and others. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. Recently, she has had her work exhibited at Bainbridge Island Museum of Art (solo exhibition) and Seattle Art Museum Gallery. Nikki is regularly invited to jury for organizations like Seattle Print Arts and Davidson Galleries for her knowledge and skill in the specialty field of printmaking.
Projects
Wait…what are you?
In the “Wait…what are you?” series (a question all too familiar to mixed race people), I am making sense of why I hate the word ‘exotic’ and resented the experience of being a woman for a good portion of my life. I re-examine female characters from stories I passively internalized in childhood through my gay, mixed race lens. These womens’ individual voices and feelings were not included in the stories I heard growing up –only the actions of others in positions of power over them. In this series, I undertake giving their perspectives (and my own) authority.
a.c.t.
Together, Nikki Jabbora-Barber and Paige McCray co-founded and co-direct A Common Thing, an exhibition project designed to bridge the gap between artists and the public, removing hierarchy from the art world to redefine the art object and characteristics of an art viewer or art owner.
Charleena Lyles
Charleena Lyles was murdered in Seattle. She had called to report a burglary. Her two children were home with her. She was pregnant. I was commissioned to paint this mural during the height of the Seattle #BlackLivesMatter in the summer of 2020. This mural was based off of protest posters I had screenprinted.
Drawing the Line
Drawing the Line: Influence, Inspiration, and Appropriation Four virtual artist conversations presented by Seattle Print Arts and facilitated by Cleo Barnett, Executive Director of Amplifier.