Nilou Ghaemi is a ceramic artist living and practicing in Tkaronto, also known as Toronto. Born in Tehran, Iran, she immigrated to Canada as a teenager. She received a bachelor’s degree in graphic design from OCADU in 2015. After practicing as a professional graphic designer, Ghaemi returned to school to pursue a career in ceramics, completing a four-year program at Sheridan College.
Working as a graphic designer before pursuing ceramics has had a significant influence on her creation and production processes. She utilizes a multidisciplinary approach: drawn elements and photographs of the subjects are digitally manipulated and serve as a scaffold for the surface treatment of the work. Experimental processes are a driving force within her practice, pushing clay beyond its expected boundaries. Ghaemi’s main areas of focus are hand-building and sculptural works. The work is an amalgamation of perceived reality and fantasy, dissolving boundaries between time and space. Clay, as a shapeshifting material, is inherently contradictory, being both fragile and seemingly everlasting, making ceramics a fitting medium for exploring the ideas and experiences surrounding decay, ephemerality, and memory. Ghaemi was awarded and began her role as Ceramics Artist-in-Residence at Harbourfront Centre on June 1, 2025.