Ayan Farah, Alumina, 2025, terracotta on linen, 170 x 140 cm, 66 7/8 x 55 1/8 in
Ayan Farah
Born in 1978 in Sharjah, UAE, to Somali Parents, Ayan Farah spent her childhood in Sweden and moved to London where she got her MA at the Royal College of Art. She lives and works in Stockholm.
Recent grants and residencies include the The Roberts Institute of Art Residency in Scotland, Black Rock in Dakar, and Sven-Harrys Konstmuseum in Stockholm. In 2025, the exhibition We Grown-Ups Can Also Be Afraid will be presented at the Attenborough Arts Centre in Leicester, England. Her works were recently presented at Black Rock Sénégal / Dak’art Biennale, Dakar, Senegal (2024), as well as in prominent group shows at El Espacio 23, Miami, Cromwell Place (the Roberts Institute of Art) London, the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich, and Fondazione Prada, Venice (all 2023), the Hunterian Art Gallery in Glasgow, Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn, The New Art Centre, Salisbury (all 2022) and the Tarble Arts Centre at Eastern Illinois University, Whitechapel Gallery, London (both 2018), Fondation Hipocrine, Paris (2014). Her work is included in the collections of Moderna Museet, Stockholm, The Kadist Foundation, Paris, Stockholm konst, Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf, Sammlung Zeitgenössischer Kunst der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Public Art Agency Sweden, The Hill Collection, New York, El Espacio 23, Miami, and the David and Indré Roberts Collection, London.
RA, 2013-2018, sun faded cotton, 275 x 140 cm
RA, 2013-2018, sun faded cotton, 275 x 140 cm
Konsten att samla (The Art of Collecting), Nytt i Moderna Museets samling, 2025, Moderna Museet, Stockholm
We Grown-Ups Can Also Be Afraid: Creativity in Times of Crisis, Attenborough Arts Centre, Leicester, 2025. Artworks courtesy of the David and Indrė Roberts Collection. Photography by Reece Straw
We Grown-Ups Can Also Be Afraid: Creativity in Times of Crisis, Attenborough Arts Centre, Leicester, 2025. Artworks courtesy of the David and Indrė Roberts Collection. Photography by Reece Straw
Installation view, Desert Seeds, Art Basel 2025, Unlimited
Desert Seeds, 2025, Clay, cloud-seeded water and hand
embroidery on canvas, 8 panels, 280 x 160 cm each. Overall dimensions 280 × 1280 cm, Unique
Ayan Farah, How to Watch the Sky, Galerie Nordenhake Stockholm, 2025. Photo: Viktor Sjödin
Artist Ayan Farah in conversation with Joanna Sandell, curator and director of Liljevalchs konsthall, on the occasion of Farah's solo exhibition *How to Watch the Sky* at Galerie Nordenhake Stockholm, June 11, 2025.
Ayan Farah, How to Watch the Sky, Galerie Nordenhake Stockholm, 2025. Photo: Viktor Sjödin
Ayan Farah, How to Watch the Sky, Galerie Nordenhake Stockholm, 2025. Photo: Viktor Sjödin
Ayan Farah, How to Watch the Sky, Galerie Nordenhake Stockholm, 2025. Photo: Viktor Sjödin
Stockholm Cosmology, Liljevalchs Konsthall, Stockholm, 2024. Photo: Mattias Lindbäck
Stockholm Cosmology, Liljevalchs Konsthall, Stockholm, 2024. Photo: Mattias Lindbäck
Stockholm Cosmology, Liljevalchs Konsthall, Stockholm, 2024. Photo: Mattias Lindbäck
Stockholm Cosmology, Liljevalchs Konsthall, Stockholm, 2024. Photo: Mattias Lindbäck
Ayan Farah in conversation with Yates Norton (curator Roberts Institute of Art, London) on the occasion of Farah's solo exhibition 'Seeds' at Galerie Nordenhake Berlin, January 26, 2024
Installation view, 'Seeds', Galerie Nordenhake Berlin, 2024
Installation view, 'Seeds', Galerie Nordenhake Berlin, 2024
Installation view, 'Seeds', Galerie Nordenhake Berlin, 2024
Saloum, 2024, Indigo, marigold, rust and terracotta on linen, 190 x 130 cm, 74 3/4 x 51 1/8 in
Omen, 2022, rust, marigold and sun faded indigo on linen and hemp, 180 x 220 cm
Asha, 2023, clay, mud, india ink, rust and indigo on linen, 240 x 180 cm
Khadija, 2023, indigo, rust and sea salt on linen, 220 x 170 cm
Installation view, Everybody Talks About the Weather, Fondazione Prada, Venice, 2023. Photo: Marco Cappelletti
'Peradam' solo show, Galerie Nordenhake Stockholm, 2022
Analogue - Saline, 2022, rust and sea salt on linen, 160 x 150 cm
Aafina - Kano, 2022, indigo, sea salt and embroidery on linen, 65 x 55 cm
Installation view, "Ayan Farah, Peradam", Galerie Nordenhake, Stockholm, 2022
Peradam, 2022, rust, marigold, carob, indigo and embroidery on linen and hemp, 200 x 170 cm
Tundra, 2022. Clay, mud, indigo and rust on linen
Installation view, "Ayan Farah, Peradam", Galerie Nordenhake, Stockholm, 2022
Bojadour, 2022. Terracotta and cloud seeded water on canvas
Ras Bujadur, 2022. Terracotta on canvas
Flesh Arranges Itself Differently, The Hunterian, Glasgow, UK, 2022.
Moonstone, 2022 rust, ink, indigo, marigold leaves, embroidery on linen and hemp
Kunstwerk, Sammlung Klein. Eberdingen/Nussdorf, Germany, 2018.
Kunstwerk, Sammlung Klein. Eberdingen/Nussdorf, Germany, 2018.
Tarble Arts Center, Eastern Illinois University, 2018
Kadel Willborn, Düsseldorf, Germany, 2016
Kadel Willborn, Düsseldorf, Germany, 2016
Almine Reich, Paris, 2014
Royal College of Art, London, 2012
