This will be Kuwaiti-Puerto Rican artist Alia Farid’s first exhibition in the UK. Working in film, sculpture, and textile, Farid gives visibility to less commonly recognised histories, often diminished by Western hegemony. Underpinning Farid’s practice is an ongoing research project that maps Arab and South Asian migrations to Latin America and the Caribbean. A growing material archive that traces these movements, and the subsequent adaptations of architectural styles, ornamentation, rituals and other social devices, forms the basis of Farid’s ambitious commission at Chisenhale Gallery. Much like her own heritage, Farid’s exhibition will bring seemingly disparate sites in relation to each other, creating a trans-regionalism that challenges national boundaries. Farid’s new work is a co-commission with The Power Plant, Toronto; CAC Passerelle, Brest; and and Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna. It will be exhibited at CAC Passerelle, Brest from 23 February to 18 May 2024 and Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna thereafter. The wider research project is largely supported by the Creative Capital Award, which Farid received in 2022.
Biography:
Alia Farid lives and works in Kuwait and Puerto Rico. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from la Escuela de Artes Plásticas de Puerto Rico (San Juan), a Master of Science in Visual Studies from the Visual Arts Program at MIT (Cambridge, Massachusetts) and a Master of Arts in Museum Studies and Critical Theory from the Programa d’Estudis Independents, MACBA (Barcelona). Selected exhibitions include: In Lieu of What Is, Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, Switzerland (2022); Whitney Biennial 2022: Quiet as It’s Kept, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2022); Forecast Form: Art in the Caribbean Diaspora 1990s - Today, MCA Chicago, Chicago (2022); Alia Farid: At the Time of the Ebb, Wäinö Aaltonen Museum of Art (WAM), Turku, Finland (2021); 10th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, QAGOMA, Brisbane (2021); Alia Farid, Kunstinstituut Melly, Rotterdam, The Netherlands (2020); Yokohama Triennale 2020, Afterglow, Yokohama, Japan (2020) In Lieu of What Was, Portikus, Frankfurt/Main (2019); Between Dig and Display, Galerie Imane Farès, Paris (2017). Farid received The Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award in 2023, is nominated for the Artes Mundi 10 Prize, and is currently the David and Roberta Logie Fellow at Harvard Radcliffe Institute (2023–2024)
