Alex Farrar b. 1986

Alex Farrar is an artist based in Amsterdam, originally from West Yorkshire in the North of England. Through a combination of social processes and material experimentation, his work explores art-making as an experimental civic activity. Recent projects have grown out of conversations about happiness with the people around him; being taught how to build a house by his dad; printing moving boxes accumulated from years of housing insecurity; and painting the forms sweat makes as it emerges on clothing. With this approach, he aims to make work grounded in personal experience and explored through social exchange.

Alex Farrar (1986) studied at Leeds College of Art, Leeds Metropolitan University, Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam, and the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam. Recent solo and duo exhibitions include ‘Do you ever feel stupid?’ at Season 4 Episode 6, London; ’D says he lives with moving boxes…’ at NAP+, Amsterdam; Grafiekprijs Pim Olivier presentation at Grafisch Atelier, Hilversum; ‘Downpour’ at Galeria Madragoa, Lisbon; ‘Sebe=SelfPreservation=Záchova’ at Galerie SPZ, Prague.

Recent group exhibitions include ‘Great God, this is an awful place’ at Dürst Britt & Mayhew, The Hague;  ‘En om vier uur? Slapen’ at Rib, Rotterdam; ‘Traces’ at Garage, Rotterdam; ‘What My Hands Know’ at Arti et Amicitiae, Amsterdam; ‘The Best Dutch Book Designs 2021’ at Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. Over the years Farrar has created a great variety of artist’s books, which have regularly been awarded with Best Dutch Book Design. In 2024 he won the Pim Olivier Grafiekprijs.

Work by Farrar is held in private and public collections, including AKZO Nobel Art Foundation, De Nederlandsche Bank and VU Art Collection in Amsterdam.