Farina Alam was born in the city of Karachi, Pakistan in 1971.She recieved her B.F.A at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, Karachi 1994,and the M.F.A at the Slade School of Fine Art, London 2000. Primarily concerned with aspects of figural representation seen in the context of Pakistani art and more significantly in relation to the current trends of this society.

Finding herself in a multi-cultural, liberal metropolis of the west for her masters' program,the direction of the work addresses how a post-colonial educational upbringing informed her notion of the 'other' and articulates through the use of the western language to express an 'exoticised', western, view of the self. She has given lectures as a visiting artist at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture in Karachi, Pakistan.