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.

Farah has been invited to represent the Federal Republic of Somalia at the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia during the 61st Venice Biennial in 2026. The presentation marks the first National Pavilion of Somalia at the Venice Biennale.

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 Instituto Bernardo Paz, Brumadinho; 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.