فير زملر غاليري Sfeir-Semler Gallery

Alia Farid

Alia Farid (b.1985) lives and works in Kuwait and Puerto Rico. She has had solo exhibitions in Copenhagen Contemporary and Glyptoteket, Copenhagen; Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Oslo; Chisenhale Gallery, London; Kunsthalle Basel, Basel; Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, Missouri; Kunstinstituut Melly, Rotterdam; Portikus, Frankfurt am Main; and CAC Passerelle. Recent and upcoming group shows include participation in the Geneva Biennale Sculpture Garden, Whitney Biennial, Diriyah Biennale, Bienal de São Paulo, Gwangju Biennale, Sharjah Biennial, Theater of Operations: The Gulf Wars 1991-2001 in MoMA PS1, Yokohama Triennale and Asia Pacific Triennial. She has forthcoming solo exhibitions with Storefront for Art and Architecture and Contemporary Art Museum Houston in partnership with Rivers Institute. Read more

Alia Farid 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 in MIT (Cambridge) and a Master of Arts in Museum Studies and Critical Theory from the Programa d'Estudis Independents MACBA (Barcelona). In 2023 she received the Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award and in 2023-24 she was the David and Roberta Logie Fellow at Harvard Radcliffe Institute.

Chibayish, 2022, UHD video, color, sound; 20 mins 18 s
1/5Alia Farid, Chibayish, 2022, UHD video, color, sound; 20 mins 18 s
In Lieu of What Is, 2022, Polyester resin and fiberglass
2/5Alia Farid, In Lieu of What Is, 2022, Polyester resin and fiberglass
Amulets, 2024, Blue faience, polyester resin
3/5Alia Farid, Amulets, 2024, Blue faience, polyester resin
Kupol LR 3303 Talismans, Three pairs of panels, fibreglass and polyester resin (Kupol LR 3303 manufactured by United Oil Projects Company, Kuwait), photocopy paper, ink, stainless steel bolts, 243 x 183 x 15 cm each
4/5Alia Farid, Kupol LR 3303 Talismans, Three pairs of panels, fibreglass and polyester resin (Kupol LR 3303 manufactured by United Oil Projects Company, Kuwait), photocopy paper, ink, stainless steel bolts, 243 × 183 × 15 cm each
Elsewhere/Cuba, 2025, 18 tapestries, Embroidered wool, natural and synthetic dyes, various dimensions
5/5Alia Farid, Elsewhere: Cuba, 2025, 18 tapestries, Embroidered wool, natural and synthetic dyes, various dimensions

Selected Press

Gallery Exhibitions

Exhibitions Beyond

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2025

  • A Sounding of the Earth, The Glyptotek in partnership with Copenhagen Contemporary, Copenhagen, Denmark

  • Alia Farid: Talismans (Kupol LR 3303), Johnson-Kulukundis Family Gallery, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA 

2024

  • Alia Farid: Bneid Al Gar, Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award Programme, Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Oslo, Norway

  • Stanford Plinth Project: Amulets, Stanford University, California, USA 

  • Elsewhere, Passerelle Centre d’art contemporain, Brest, France

2023

  • Elsewhere, Chisenhale Gallery, London, UK

2022

  • Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, USA 

  • In Lieu of What Is, Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, Switzerland

2020

  • Alia Farid, Kunstinstituut Melly, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

2019

  • In Lieu of What Was, Portikus, Frankfurt, Germany 

Selected Group Exhibitions

2026

  • Unruly Water, Inaugural edition of Rubaiya Qatar, Doha, Qatar (forthcoming)

  • Untitled (a gathering of remarkable people), Qatari Pavilion, La Biennale Di Venezia, Venice, Italy (forthcoming)

  • If the word we, 59th Carnegie International, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, USA (forthcoming)

  • Neither Water Nor Land, Ujazdowski Castle, Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, Poland (forthcoming)

  • Breaking Through a Dam, Salt Beyoğlu, Istanbul , Turkey

  • for our time is the time of water, TAVROS, Tavros, Greece

  • Never Spoken Again: Rogue Stories of Science and Collections, Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis, USA

2025

  • Jameel Prize: Moving Images, Hayy Jameel, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

  • Dream City Festival, Tunis, Tunisia

  • The Shade, Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Karantina, Beirut, Lebanon

  • to carry, Sharjah Biennial 16, Sharjah, UAE

  • And All That Is In Between, 2nd Islamic Arts Biennale, Western Hajj Terminal of King Abdulaziz International Airport, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

  • Jameel Prize: Moving Images, Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, Bradford, England

2024

  • Jameel Prize: Moving Images, V&A: Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK

  • Portals, Galeria Francisco Fino, Porto, Portugal 

  • After Rain, Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale, Diriyah, Saudi Arabia 

  • The Soup, Madragoa Gallery, Lisbon, Portugal 

  • Blind Date 2.0, Sfeir-Semler Gallery Karantina, Beirut, Lebanon 

  • Otra Orilla, Abu Dhabi Art, Abu Dhabi, UAE

2023

  • Artes Mundi 10, Cardiff, Wales, UK 

  • Water Stories, Johnson-Kulukundis Family Gallery, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA 

  • Z33 Art on the Meuse, Hasselt, Belgium 

  • Biennale für Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany 

  • Awwal Bait, “First House", Inaugural edition of the Islamic Arts Biennale, Hajj Terminal, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

2022

  • Forecast Form, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Illinois, USA 

  • Moving Bodies, Moving Images, Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK 

  • Geneva Biennale: Sculpture Garden, Geneva, Switzerland 

  • Whitney Biennial 2022: Quiet as It’s Kept, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA

2020

  • Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art 10, Queensland Art Gallery & Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia 

  • Yokohama Triennale 2020: Afterglow, Yokohama, Japan 

  • In Pursuit of Images, Architectural Association School of Architecture, London, UK 

  • 49th International Film Festival Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands 

  • Lahore Biennale: Between the Sun and Moon, Lahore, Pakistan

2019

  • Theater of Operations: The Gulf Wars 1991-2011, MoMA PS1, New York, NY 

  • Sharjah Biennial 14: Leaving the Echo Chamber, Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE

2018

  • The 12th Gwangju Biennale: Imagined Borders, Gwangju Biennale Foundation, Gwangju, South Korea 

  • Enchanted Bodies/Fetish for Freedom, Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Bergamo, Bergamo, Italy

2017

  • JIWA, Jakarta Biennale, Jakarta, Indonesia 

  • Bridges, United Nations, New York, United States 

  • Cities of Conviction, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Salt Lake City, United States 

  • Negotiating Space, The Mosaic Rooms, London, United Kingdom

Awards

  • Harvard Radcliffe Institute Fellowship

  • Premio UBS para Artistas Contemporáneos (MAPR - UBS)

  • Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award 

  • The Vega Foundation Grant

  • Doha Film Institute Grant

  • Creative Capital Award

  • Art Jameel Award Commission

  • Arab Fund for Culture and Arts (AFAC) Grant

Residencies

2023

  • Rivers Institute in partnership with Amistad Research Center, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

2022

  • Art Explora, Paris, France 

  • Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Research Institute for the Study of Art from Latin America, MoMA, Valle del Bravo, Mexico

2021

  • Othering & Belonging Institute, University of California, Berkeley, USA

Public Collections

Education

2012

  • MACBA Programa d’Estudis Independents (PEI), MA

2008

  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MSVisS

2006

  • Escuela de Artes Plásticas de Puerto Rico, BFA