Farah Salem (b.1991, Kuwait) is a Chicago-based interdisciplinary artist and somatic art therapist; these two practices exist independently, yet are intertwined as her professional training informs her artistic inquiry of how trauma manifests in the body. Her visual arts practice rooted in photography expands through video, performance and installation finding subtle affinities between geologic time, somatic movement, gendered trauma, and Arabian Peninsula ceremonial healing rituals. Through relational merging and mapping of human and geologic bodies, she envisions their liberation by examining themes of agency, making the invisible visible, and the potential erosion of socio-cultural conditioning. 

Farah holds an MA in Art Therapy and Counseling from 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), Hyde Park Art Center (Chicago), EXPO CHICAGO, American University Museum (Washington DC), United Photo Industries/Photoville Gallery (New York), Engage Gallery (Chicago), Patel Brown (Toronto), 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, Hatch Residency at Chicago Artist Coalition, ACRE Artist Residency, Per|Form at Contemporary Art Platform (Kuwait) and Journey to Turkey Residency with Crossway Foundation (UK). Farah is the recipient of the 2024 3Arts Award, and is the 2017 Laureate Winner: International Women Photographers Award.

Headshot: Tamara Hijazi

Image: Farah Salem, Lithostatic (1-5), 2022-2025, Photography, Installation, 20x30" prints. Photography Credit: Mikey Mosher

(updated 2025)