Nia Alexander Campbell

Biography

Nia Alexander Campbell is an interdisciplinary artist, designer, and researcher whose work explores storytelling as a tool for cultural memory, connection, and liberation. She uses mixed media collage, speculative worldbuilding, and the design of interactive narrative objects—such as dolls, boardgames, card decks, and activity books—to explore themes of joy, play, identity, and Black feminist thought. Her practice emphasizes inclusive, community-rooted approaches that center the experiences and imaginations of marginalized groups—particularly Black women. Across her creative and research work, she treats play as both a site of resistance and a meaningful entry point for exploring complex narratives and possibilities. Nia holds a BFA in Painting & Printmaking (with a minor in Art History), an MFA in Design from VCUarts Qatar, and is currently pursuing a PhD in Media & Design Innovation at Toronto Metropolitan University.

Residency Goals

This residency will support a foundational phase of my practice-based PhD research, focused on exploring “the doll” as a site of storytelling, symbolism, and cultural memory within Black visual traditions. My primary goals are to refine the conceptual framework guiding my creative outcomes, deepen my understanding of how different materials and formats shape narrative meaning, and identify methods I can later bring into dialogue with my research community. This is a period of intentional experimentation that will ground future creative engagement in greater clarity and direction.

Residency project

My project explores how dolls can carry story, identity, and collective memory—particularly within Black feminist and speculative traditions. I’ll work from fantasy characters created by women in my family, using their descriptions and drawings as a foundation to experiment with doll forms across both 2D and 3D formats. Through methods like papermaking, casting, and textile work, I’ll consider how different materials reflect the narratives tied to each character, and what that may reveal about the communicative power of dolls.