Fara Abn

As an international Ph.D. student and art historian, Fara’s research and practice is situated within the most cosmopolitan of contemporary art exhibitions: La Biennale di Venezia. Living in Italy for over a decade afforded her the opportunity to attend and study multiple editions and collaborate with international artists and curators. Her research proposal involves a comparative examination of national participations at the Venice Biennial. She scrutinizes the display strategies employed to include or exclude political and/or private interests that affect national self-representations.
Her interest extends to exploring the role of cultural and political institutions in Venetian participations, as well as the consequences of such exposure. Ultimately, this research topic allows her to utilize her linguistic resources (Persian, Italian, and English) and cross-cultural competencies to their maximum potential.

Fara is also enrolled in the Graduate Diploma in Curatorial Studies, and presently working at the Canada Council Art Bank where she is actively curating an exhibition that will be displayed during a major City of Ottawa event. She has completed multiple curatorial projects, including Hyphen(-), which was exhibited at Gallery 101 in April 2023, and Channels which is a forthcoming exhibition in collaboration with the federal government’s Department of Crown Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs. Her community involvement includes board positions with both the Society of Dante Alighieri of Ottawa and Gallery 101, in addition to organizing Italian conversation sessions at the Language Learning Resource Center in Carleton University.

Recent and Upcoming Conference Presentations:
“The Middle East at the Venice Biennial” Paper presented at the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) Annual Meeting, Montreal, December 2021.

Courses Taught: ITAL 1010E Winter 2023
TA Assignments: ITAL 1010, 1020, 2010, 2020, 3110, 4110 & FILM 1101