Naomi Hamlin-Navias is a Chicago based fiber artist, papermaker, and biodesigner. Born and raised in Central New York, they are based in Chicago after graduating from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with a BFA in Studio Art with concentrations in Fiber Art & Material Studies and Art & Technology.

Primarily working with biodegradable materials such as handmade paper, bioplastics, natural fibers and pigments, their artistic practice employs these materials and tools such as automatic writing, research, material exploration, and the act of playing as a pathway towards the the divine. They are inspired by a familial lineage of Unitarian Universalist, Quaker, and Jewish faith practices, Ionian philosophy, tactile exploration, water, sunlight, animal murmuration, and the color blue.

What is the relationship between color and light, the tactile and intangible, the physical and divine? And the thing that separates them— the intermingling membrane between a body of water and the air above— what would it look like if brought into the magnified field? I use this vision to explore transient structures of relationship and identity with the knowledge that the connection between all things is forever shifting and changing.

My use of materials becomes an extension of my focus with metaphysical relationships; fiber and biomaterials become representative of solidity and physicality. When combined with water these fibers form an interconnected web, existing within relation to each other. The boundaries of water cannot be entirely defined, moving between physical and immaterial. Queerness is a refusal of a singular state of being. In this way, water becomes a queer material, a queer body.

CV available upon request


For business inquiries, please email naomihamlinnavias@gmail.com

©Naomi Hamlin-Navias, 2025