Home Artist Programs Supported Artists Farah Billah

Farah Billah

New Orleans, Louisiana

In this painting, Swamp Dream, a nude woman lies face down along the bottom edge of an ornate gold frame, which floats over a tiger sitting in a grassy field. The woman appears to sleep with her cheek on one hand and the other arm hanging down. A handled pot sits in the long grass next to the tiger, and the sky in the background is streaked with translucent clouds across a blue, pink, and pale yellow sky.

Swamp Dream

2023

Adorned Self Portrait shows the artist from the chest up. Her face is painted with tones of golden brown, and her body is painted with floral patterns in amber yellow, dark brown, and russet red. She looks off to our right, and her dark hair falls loosely over her bare shoulders. The background is painted with midnight-blue ornaments in pastel-colored squares.

Adorned Self Portrait

2023

Painting titled Mother Moth shows a woman wearing a celestial-blue sari patterned with pale yellow and scarlet red. She is shown facing our right in profile from her nose and cheek to her elbow. A cluster of petals and human eyes rests over one shoulder, and she wears an ornate pendant and gold earring on the ear we can see.

Mother Moth

2022

A person with long, wavy black hair and brown-toned skin is shown from the waist up in this painting, Wedding Guest Big Hands. The person looks off to our left with silvery gray eyes. A red bindi is between the eyebrows, and the person has full lips and a cleft chin. They wear a pumpkin-orange and yellow sari, and a white and yellow necklace. One oversized hand is held to the chest, and the background is made up of a wavy light and green checked pattern.

Wedding Guest Big Hands

2022

Artworks shown are selected from works submitted by the artist in their grant or residency application. All works are copyright of the artist or artist’s estate.

About Farah Billah

Farah Billah is a Bangladeshi woman with black hair. She wears a black shirt falling off one shoulder and blue pants. She sits with her legs crossed in a studio space. One forearm and elbow rest on the bent knee, and she looks off into the distance with that hand brushing her cheek.

Farah Billah is a painter and poet from Sacramento, CA. The author of two collections of poetry and a working muralist, she has been pursuing her personal art practice in New Orleans, LA for six years. Initially an oil painter, Billah has expanded her mediums to include tattooing, textiles, and embroidery, encompassing themes of personal history, culture, environment, and bodily autonomy.

Program Participation

Joan Mitchell Center Residency, 2026

Website / Social Links

“ My paintings depict pattern work on bodies. In my Bengali culture, bodies are adorned with fabrics and gold, but in Islam, tattoos are forbidden. I have been grappling with the idea of who owns my body if I cannot choose what and how to adorn it.”