Nicole Farhi
b. 1946, France
Nicole Farhi studied art and fashion in Paris in the late 1960s. Her career as a fashion designer took off so quickly that she put art aside and concentrated on fashion. However, twelve years later, having started her own business and feeling restless, she decided she wanted to return to making art. She trained with Jean Gibson (1935–1991) throughout the 1980s and was mentored by Sir Eduardo Paolozzi (1924–2005) after meeting in 1985.
For over 30 years, Farhi had to fit sculpting around fashion. In 2012, two years after the Nicole Farhi label was sold, Farhi showed her last collection and then was free to walk away from fashion to sculpt full-time. Her debut exhibition was at Bowman Gallery, London in 2014 and since then, she has gone on to have several successful solo exhibitions including at The Fine Art Society, Edinburgh and London; Beaux Arts, London; CCA Galleries International, Jersey, and museum exhibitions at Gainsborough’s House, Sudbury in 2019 and Harley Gallery, Welbeck in 2023. Farhi is a member of the Royal Society of Sculptors.