BIO
Farnaz Gholami (b. 1989, Dublin) graduated with distinction from the MFA Painting programme at the Slade School of Fine Art in 2019. She holds a Graduate Diploma in Fine Art from Chelsea College of Arts (2017) and a Post-Baccalaureate in Studio Art from Brandeis University,USA (2013).
Her work has been exhibited internationally, including at Nuweland Gallery and Zona Maco Art Fair (Mexico), What If The World Gallery (South Africa), Niru Ratnam and Yamamoto Keiko (London), as well as the Royal Academy and Saatchi Gallery (London). She was shortlisted for Bloomberg New Contemporaries in 2019 and was a finalist for the UKNA Robert Walters Award in 2022.
ART STATEMENT
Farnaz Gholami explores place not as a fixed location, but as a volatile, shifting state, shaped by social, political and cultural forces, as well as memory, emotion and the imagination. Born in Dublin and raised in Tehran, Gholami has lived in many different countries. She draws on these diasporic experiences to channel feelings of dislocation and rootlessness into landscapes where the natural world is interrupted or obscured by psychological and material stutters. Yet within these fractured environments, a sense of freedom emerges. The fluidity of her brushwork, the playfulness of her forms and the intensity of her colours evoke a sense of nascence that is both fragile and joyful, creating space to question inherited ideas of belonging, identity and otherness.
Education
2019
The Slade School of Fine Art (UCL), MA in Fine Art Painting (Distinction), London, UK
2017
Chelsea College of Arts (UAL), Graduate Diploma in Fine Art, London, UK
2013
Brandeis University Post-Baccalaureate in Fine Art, Studio Art, Massachusetts, USA
Selected Exhibitions
2026
About Love, CasildART Contemporary, London, UK
2025
Solo Show: Interlude, Nuweland Gallery, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
Cells and Love, Hypha Studios, London, UK
Between Waters, Nuweland Gallery, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
Seasons, The Addenbrooke’s Gallery, Cambrige, UK
2024
The Light Between, What if the World Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
ZsONAMACO Art Fair, Nuweland Gallery, Mexico City, Mexico
Bury My Songs, Terrace Gallery, London, UK
2023
Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, London, UK
In Bloom, Victoria Law Projects, London, UK
Art on a Postcard Winter Auction, Gathering Gallery, London, UK
The Christmas Show, Bomb Factory, London, UK
2022
Solo Show: Pearl Palace and Other Buildings of a Misremembered Past, Bomb Factory Gallery, London, UK
Duo Show:Wilderness Known, Liliya Art Gallery, London, UK
Through a Glass, Darkly, Niru Ratnam Gallery, London, UK
UKNA/Robert Walters, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK
Autumn Exhibition, Karen Tronel Gallery, London, UK
Art on a Postcard, Bomb Factory Gallery, London, UK
Little Explosions, Bomb Factory Gallery, London, UK
Weary Harold, Asc Gallery, London, UK
2021
Duo Show: Harbinger of a Sweet Song, Yammamoto Keiko Rochaix Gallery, London, UK
Wild Grapes, Unit 3 Project Space, London, UK
Echo, Eco, Co, O, Heck! , Proposition Gallery, London, UK
2020
Squeezed, Karen Tronel Gallery, London, UK
2019
Gestura, The Koppel Project, London, UK
Graduate Art Prize Exhibition, ARTIQ and Herbert Smith Freehills, London, UK
Distant Heres, The Stone Space Gallery, London, UK
But We Don’t Leave Pyramids, GAPS Curatorial, Charsoo Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2018
Home, Jorjani Gallery, Tehran, Iran
The Field, The ASC Gallery, London, UK
2017
Imagen Vibratoria, bajo el paraguas de su reproducción, El Museo Nahim Isaías del Ministerio de Cultura y Patrimonio, Ecuador
Let’s Yarding, GAPS Curatorial, London, UK
Big Fridge, The Safehouse Gallery, London, UK
Hot Dairy, The Cookhouse Gallery, London, UK
Residencies
2026
Hands-On Residency, London, UK
2019
The Slade Summer School Residency, UCL, London, UK
2014-15
Printmaking Residency, Warren Editions, Cape Town, South Africa
Achievements
2024
Earls Court Window Project, BombFactory Art Foundation & The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, UK
2023
Ing Discerning Eye, London, UK
2022
UKNA Robert Walters Awards, London, UK (Finalist)
2019
The Olive Prize, The Slade School of Fine Art, London, UK (Recipient)
Bloomberg New Contemporaries, London, UK (Shortlisted)
Tiffany & co. x Outset studiomakers award, London, UK (Runner up)
The Graduate Art Prize, Artiq, London, UK (Shortlisted)