Laurel Farrin was born in Chicago, IL and raised in Cleveland, Oh. She received a B.F.A. from Ohio University and an M.F.A. from the University of Maryland in 1993. Farrin received an individual artist grant from the Washington DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities in 1995. In 1997 Farrin was an Artist-in-Residence at the Roswell Museum and Art Center, Roswell, NM, and in 2003 to 2015 has received residency fellowships at Yaddo, Millay Colony for the Arts, Atlantic Center for the Arts, and VCCA. Recent exhibitions include Green Chalk Contemporary, Monterey, CA, Hallwalls, Buffalo, NY, 2003; The Albany International Airport, 2005; Lesley Heller Gallery, NYC, 2008; Joyce Goldstein Gallery, Chatham, NY, 2007; Bronx River Art Center, NYC, 2007; Sioux City Art Center, 2003; Anton Gallery, Washington DC, 2000, 2002, and New American Painting, Mid Atlantic Edition, 2003. Other venues include The Corcoran Gallery of Art, The Des Moines Art Center, The Florida Center for Contemporary Art, Spaces, Cleveland, OH, Washington DC Project for the Arts, Saugatuck Center for the Arts and Roswell Museum and Art Center. Farrin is an associate professor and the head of painting/drawing at the School of Art and Art History at the University of Iowa and splits her time between Iowa City and New York City.