Fariba S. Alam is a U.S. born artist of Bangladeshi descent who creates installations integrating ceramics, self-portraits and archival photographs. An intended effect of her work is to stimulate dialogue and reflection on the dynamic interplay of Islamic artistic tradition with more present and personal inquiries of gender and belonging.

Simultaneously, religious and secular allegories—with themes of migration, travel and fantasy—often inhabit her narrative influences. For example, several of her works reference the parable of the Night Journey or Mir’aj, in which the prophet Mohammed takes a mystical voyage from Mecca to Jerusalem riding a creature half-angel, half-horse. She investigates the fluidity between the intangible and real, the tension between spiritual transcendence and corporeal immanence, while space and direction are rendered ambiguous.

Alam’s work has been shown at The Queens Museum, The Asia Society, Exit Art, The Museum of African Art, The Museum of Contemporary Art/Shanghai amongst other galleries in the U.S. and Asia. Collections include The Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Modena and the Burger Collection. Fariba holds a B.A. in Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures from Columbia College, Columbia University. She is the recipient of a Fulbright fellowship (1998/1999) and holds an M.A. from New York University (2004).