Farah Salem (she/her) is a Kuwaiti-Iraqi interdisciplinary artist and art therapist based in Chicago. Farah’s studio practice is rooted in photography, expanding through video, performance, fiber-materials, and installation. Her origins in photography influence the ways she uses materials to sensorily embody concepts she grapples with. Through relational merging and mapping of human and geological bodies, she envisions their liberation. By doing so, she examines themes of agency, making the invisible visible, and potential erosion of socio-cultural conditioning distorting our shared realities. Her visual arts and somatic-centered art therapy practices are independent; however, they intersect in her professional training, informing her artistic exploration of how trauma manifests in the body by incorporating tools from ancestral healing wisdom for the recovery of the somatic experience while relating to the natural world.
Farah holds a Master of Arts in Art Therapy and Counseling from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her artwork has been featured nationally and internationally at Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Photography (Chicago), EXPO CHICAGO, American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center (Washington D.C.), United Photo Industries/Photoville Gallery (New York), Patel Brown (Toronto), ENGAGE Projects (Chicago), Bolivia Biennial, Paris Contemporary Art Fair, Sharjah Art Foundation (UAE), and Contemporary Art Platform (Kuwait). Farah completed the Radicle Studio Residency at Hyde Park Art Center (Chicago), Hatch Residency at Chicago Artists Coalition, ACRE Artist Residency (Steuben), Per|Form at Contemporary Art Platform (Kuwait) and Journey to Turkey Residency with Crossway Foundation (UK).
The Covenant: A rite of protection, 2023
Performance Photography, Cowrie reimagined ceremonial headdress
Featured Artworks
Lithostatic 4, 2022
Image by Farah Salem
Lithostatic 1 (Wall Installation), 2023
Framed inkjet photographic prints, and photographic print on phototex wall installation
Image by Tran Tran
Uninhibited Headdress and Manjour of Freedom on Topographic Desert Landscape, 2023
Image by Steven Piper
Percussions of Reconciliation (Feet Drum 1 & 2), 2025
Image by Farah Salem
Power to See, 2019
Image by Farah Salem
Re-imaging Earthly Sounds 3, 2025
Image by Mikey Mosher
Installation of Canyon Wall (Front wall), Uninhibited People of the Earth Video (Center Floor), and Wind-Light Warped Thresholds (back wall), 2025
Image by Mikey Mosher
Installation of The Covenant 3 and 4 (Right) Amulets for the Wanderer within Fidwa Frames 1 (Right), 2025
Image by Mikey Mosher
An Evening of Spirited Sound-Making, 2025
Image by Ricardo Adame