Farazeh Syed (b. 1971) is a multi-disciplinary visual artist working across the mediums of painting, printmaking, mixed media and textile art. Her personal history and experience as a woman inform her art practice, that challenges the art historical narrative surrounding women and their bodies and prescribed notions of gender and sexuality. After completing two years of the foundation program at National College of Arts, Farazeh went on to acquire a diploma in print making at Gandhara Art College, Islamabad. Inspired by the Ustad-Shagird relationship, she trained with renowned painter Iqbal Hussain for over fifteen years, where she learnt painting and an acute understanding of the human form, subsequently, refining her own visual and conceptual vocabulary. Syed also attended Continuing Education courses in painting and drawing at Parsons and Art Students League, New York. She has been involved in art teaching through formal studio classes, lectures, critiques and talks.
Farazeh received her MA (Hons.) in Visual Arts from National College of Arts, where she has also served as Associate Professor, Fine Arts (Visiting Faculty), and her MA in Education (Gold Medal) from Beaconhouse National University, where she has taught Academic Writing and Critical Reading. Farazeh has been trained in South Asian Classical vocal music and has performed on several platforms. Her connection with music lends her work rhythms and a certain lyricism that can be experienced as subtle sensations. As a Research Associate at Sanjan Nagar Institute of Art and Philosophy, Syed has researched extensively on Classical music, written academic papers and lectured on South Asian Classical Music and Cultural history at National College of Arts, Musicology Department.
Farazeh has exhibited her work extensively in prominent international shows and local galleries and her work is in the collection of eminent national and international collectors. She has attended several art residencies and was awarded merit grant for artists’ residency at The Vermont Studio Centre, USA in 2020 and nominated for the 2021 Sovereign Asian Art Prize. Her work has been featured in several international and local art and literary journals. Her recent shows include her solos Madar, Mater, Mataram, 2024, Canvas Gallery, Karachi; My Body Remembers, 2021, Sanat Gallery, Karachi, The Skin We Are In, 2018, O Art Space, Lahore, and Reimagining the Imagined, 2017 Sanat Gallery; two person shows Life in a Play, 2021, Satrang Gallery, Islamabad, and There is No Them, 2019, Sanat Gallery, Karachi; and group shows Before Meets After 2023, The Upside Space, Singapore; Twelve Gates 2022 Gala, Philadelphia; The Body & Beyond, 2022, Lahore Biennale Foundation; Aberzanaan, 2021, Afghanistan; The Artdom Project, 2021, Oslo and Sweden; The Architecture of Being, 2021, AAN Gandhara Art Space, Karachi; Bienvenue Art Fair, 2019, Paris; Self Portraits in the Age of the Selfie, 2019, COMO Museum, Lahore; The Imago Mundi Project for Pakistan, 2017, Venice Biennale.
