Born in Iran, Nicky Nodjoumi has lived in New York since 1968 where he completed his studies in Fine Arts at the City College of Art. At the time of the Islamic revolution in 1978- 79, Nodjoumi travelled back to his homeland, but returned to New York where he became politically engaged in the quest for freedom of democracy against the Iranian government, by designing statement posters and political satires. With time, Nodjoumi sought to find his own narrative in paintings that were politically and socially charged. His works revealed his Iranian background, yet moved away from the art scene that flourished in his homeland and revealed the influences of Western artists such as Willem de Kooning and James Rosenquist. As a result, his paintings juggle between reality and surrealism to purposely blur the lines and are reminiscent of his earlier political satires, but with a surreal and abstract twist, thus charged with ambiguity and irony.