Born in 1999, Niah McGiff is a London based artist whose paintings use the figure as a site of painterly interrogation, exploring interior emotional and psychological states. 

McGiff trained at the Essential School of Painting, graduating with distinction from the Foundation Diploma in 2019, and went on to study Fine Art at Chelsea College of Arts, University of the Arts London. She has exhibited across London and curates group exhibitions supporting emerging artists and community led initiatives, including a recent exhibition at Alexandra Palace.

Her recent body of work, GRAVITY, will be presented in a solo exhibition in London this July, followed by a second feature of the work in September at an independent gallery in Taipei, Taiwan.

She is also curating and exhibiting in Common Matter, on June 11th at One Navigator Square, Archway. Tickets are available via DICE: 

https://dice.fm/event/py89ok-common-matter-11th-jun-the-dance-hall-archway-n19-london-tickets

Niah was recently awarded First Place in the RISE Emerging Artist Competition and will present her work at the Henley Festival, 8–12 July 2026.

Artist Statement 

My work concerns the idea that art cannot fully be verbally translated. I explore the distance between what is felt and what can be said. Philosopher Joseph Levine names this the “explanatory gap,” and my practice moves within that space, using material and gesture to approach what resists articulation.

Still, there is a pressure to account for the work in words. What follows is an attempt to translate it.

I grew up in England with Asian and English heritage, and questions of belonging have always shaped the way I think about identity and emotional life. My practice has largely centred on figuration, using the body as a site to explore psychological states and the tensions that emerge within relationships, memory and self-perception. I gravitate towards painting human subjects as we are biologically inclined to connect with one another, yet we lack access to each other’s internal experiences. For me, art bridges that divide; it serves as a means to express what happens internally, and I view other works as expressions of the inner experiences of others.

In many of my paintings the figure appears unstable or partially dissolving. I am interested in how the body can hold emotional weight without needing to describe a clear narrative. By allowing forms to break down or drift between representation and abstraction, the figure becomes a space where inner experience can surface in less controlled ways.

Fundamentally my practice is concerned with the materiality of paint itself. Through working and reworking the surface, I explore how gesture, colour and texture can carry emotional meaning where language begins to fall short.

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