Alannah Farrell

Alannah Farrell’s oil paintings contemplate the anxiety of modern queer life

In their latest show, artist Alannah Farrell protests the taboo discourse around gender dysphoria with emotional nuance. — Millen Brown-Ewens

Curator’s Choice: Women and Nonbinary Artists Subvert the Politics of Portraiture

“Serenade” captures tender representations of sitters amid brooding landscapes. — Ayanna Dozier

Painter Alannah Farrell Brings Us Inside Their Studio as They Put the Finishing Touches on a New L.A. Solo Show

Creating just the right mood of comfortable collaboration is key to this process, said Farrell, noting their studio acts something like a stage. “Whatever time we share in the studio filters into my excitement in doing the work.” — Katie White

A Rich, Somber, Undercurrent: An Interview of Alannah Farrell

This queer, trans-identifying artist from rural New York gracefully depicts the real bodies of their queer scene in atmospheric paintings, the magic of which stems from the shapely emotional nuances of each subject. — Stella Peacock-Berardini

Review: It’s Much Louder Than Before at Anat Ebgi

It’s Much Louder Than Before, organized by James Bartolacci and Stefano di Paola, inexplicably lies at the taut deliberations between the adaptability and reconciliation of a party world of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. — Ricky Amadour

One Work: Alannah Farrell’s “Cutlet”

Many of Alannah Farrell’s paintings pay tribute to queer life in New York, depicting friends, lovers, and dancers in intimate, surreal spaces. Portraiture seems to come easily to them, their subjects exuding a confident vitality in style and expression. — Billy Anania

ALL THESE ARTWORKS HAVE BEEN CENSORED BY INSTAGRAM

“I was disappointed but not surprised,” said artist Alannah Farrell about Instagram taking down an image of their work “Cutlet” (2021) about an hour after it was posted earlier this summer. The drawing portrays a figure sliding a blade under their right breast, and like many of Farrell’s works, it evokes a poignant vulnerability. —Hyperallergic

Alannah Farrell: History of Violence at Anat Ebgi

Each portrait is part memory, part narrative, and all raw truth. Farrell’s work firmly places the identities and lives of those within the artist’s queer community into the limelight, solidifying their place in the history of portraiture. —Christina Nafziger

“History of Violence,” An Exhibition by Alannah Farrell at Anat Ebgi, Los Angeles

The artist portrays their inner circle of friends and creative community with a tenderness and intimacy that combats the alienation and violences of modern queer life.

8 LGBTQIA+ Artists on Self-Portraiture and Expressions of Pride

They determine gesture, form, light, color, and the inclusion or exclusion of body parts; what we see is something that the artist sees within themselves, an assertion of selfhood and visibility. “It’s a power shift from being defined to defining yourself,” said artist Alannah Farrell. “A reclaiming of identity.”

Alannah Farrell meticulously paints the experiences of their subjects

The New York-based artist discusses their recent works, featuring powerful portraiture, household objects and detailed expressions. — Ayla Angelos

CURE/RATED: Bigotry, A Societal Cancer

Also set to feature is Alannah Farrell whose vivid narrative paintings, like the controversial Sam and Richard (2019), celebrate queer identity and sexuality while also challenging some of the conventional assumptions that fuel gender-based prejudice. —Art & Object

Creating Portraits, Communicating Emotion: An Interview with Alannah Farrell

Alannah Farrell’s portraits are as intimate as they are honest, glowing under the pale light of the moon or the rosy haze of dawn in New York City. A simple gesture like placing your hands over someone’s knee becomes a noteworthy act. — Christina Nafziger

A Print For a Good Cause – Alannah Farrell in an Interview

"As a queer New Yorker, I've found many kindred spirits here, and I am happy to be here even if we are on pause. Ultimately, this is why I'm eager to support the Ali Forney Center with my current project, a limited edition print via The Linocut London. The AF Center's mission 'to protect LGBTQ youths from the harms of homelessness' is even more crucial in light of this pandemic!" —Alannah Farrell

Worlds Without Rooms: Otherworldly Vignettes by Alannah Farrell

Farrell’s images surge with an ethereal aura reminiscent of Orthodox church icons in shrines or deities adorning the entrances of Hindu temples. Her paintings are installed on walls of a carefully chosen hue, heightening this implicit sense of awe. —Audra Lambert

The Painting Center: Alannah Farrell

It’s in the gently strange flesh tones and only-just inert, wee-bit-winkingly-quickened poses of certain sitters. It’s in the way some of them look not merely at you directly or askance, but into you perhaps to rise up to bite, shock or seduce you, or maybe murder you, or maybe love you. —Paul D’Augostino

Worlds Without Rooms

Alannah Farrell is more than just a visual artist — she is a vanguard for human emotion. And as for painting... it never died: only evolved. —Mar Chan

Image of the Day: Alannah Farrell, Sanctuary (Magdalena), 2019

Painting in a style she describes as “faux realism”, the artist uses mainly muted colour palettes with a splash of brightness to signify her experience with sleep paralysis according to The Painting Center, which is showing her work from this week in a show entitled Worlds without Rooms.

Alannah Farrell’s Portraits of the Lower East Side

Moving to the East Village as a teen–a completely opposite landscape–she became fascinated by the nightlife scenes, its dualistic nature, a kind of hide-and-seek, where one can simultaneously lose themselves while finding solace amongst like-minded misfits.

Alannah Farrell: Curious Strangeness

"Lighting in photography is what really got me hooked into the medium, the way light and shadow create and manipulate the mood. I still use many of those techniques in my paintings." —Alannah Farrell

Alannah Farrell’s Worlds Without Rooms pulls back the curtain on millennial struggles and insecurities

Farrell tempts the viewer by portraying the room in colour and the sitter in grisaille with the faintest hints of reflective colour, further accented by the deep turquoise chair she is sitting in. Just like in the paintings in many motel rooms, this one is framed in a gaudy gold frame. —Katy Cowan

Alannah Farrell

"Many of the objects and details act as clues, like clues in a true crime story... I want viewers to look at those details and wonder what happened here? What is the model thinking?Without attempting some sense of tension and mystery I would get bored!" —Alannah Farrell  

Artist Spotlight: Alannah Farrell

“I’m drawn to individuals that exist on the threshold between ugly, beautiful, male, female, flawed and idealized; individuals which access my raw, emotionally charged view of humanity.  My portraits combine hand-painted backdrops, artificial and natural settings to create narratives for which the subject lives in.  Recurring narrative themes focus on mystery, gender, uninhibited feeling and personal history.” —Alannah Farrell