Farihah Aliyah Shah

Farihah Aliyah Shah is lens-based artist, researcher, and arts educator based in Bradford, Ontario, Canada (Treaty 18) and Amherst, MA. She holds a BHRM from York University, a BFA in Photography from OCAD University in Toronto, Ontario and is currently pursuing an MFA in Studio Arts at UMass Amherst. 

 

Shah’s practice explores identity formation through the colonial gaze, forced migration in relation to labour, goods and services, race, connectivity to land, and collective memory. She critiques the photographic canon while building new narratives that aim at narrowing gaps within her personal history and archive. Shah was the 2019 recipient of the John Hartman Award, long-listed in 2022 for the New Generation Photography Award, and the 2023 recipient of the CCI x WOPA Fellowship at the Perez Art Museum of Miami (PAMM). She is the co-founding member of Mast Year Collective; an artist duo exploring kinship through collective practice and has exhibited internationally.