artist residency
Farah Barakat
25/10 – 19/11/2025
“I took away a different kind of acceptance, one that holds many perspectives at once. I also formed meaningful connections that will remain very close to my heart.
Maybe it was a coincidence, but we were all women working together, and that felt deeply empowering. The balance between professionalism, warmth, softness, and sensitivity was always present. On a personal level, this was a very meaningful experience for me.”
Farah Barakat (*1996 in Alexandria, lives and works in Cairo) is a painter and mixed media artist. Since completing her BA in Visual Arts from The American University in Cairo in 2018 she has exhibited her work in group exhibitions at numerous Cairo venues including Darb1718, Sharjah Art Gallery, Medrar for Contemporary Art, Soma Gallery, Tahrir Cultural Center, and Art d’Egypte. Her work was also included in the London showcase of the King Tut Collective with the Egyptian Culture Bureau.
Farah Barakat reflects on subtle aspects of the human experience. In her exploration of self, surroundings, and human dynamics she conjures up an alternative reality, which reflects in her experimental handling of mediums. Her intuitive approach to painting combines with manipulating and distorting raw materials such as unprimed fabrics, different types of clay, cement and gypsum. The process of layering is an invitation to look beneath the surface and ponder distorted narratives that challenge the ‘truth’ of memory and its elusive nature. The interconnectedness of memory and identity is a central theme in her work which ponders the interplay of gain, loss, choice, and transformation over time that shapes identities in the contemporary world.
In Vienna Farah Barakat developed with Anna Khodorkovskaya a collaborative exhibition project on the theme of the impact of images on social media. How power is performed and how violence is normalized? The exhibition Don’t Skip was presented at philomena+ during the Vienna Art Week in November 2025.
The residency took place in collaboration with ARD – Art Institution.
in collaboration with:
financially supported by:
