Meet Gregory F. Farah

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Gregory F. Farah. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Gregory F., you’ve got such an interesting story, but before we jump into that, let’s first talk about a topic near and dear to us – generosity. We think success, happiness and wellbeing depends on authentic generosity and empathy and so we’d love to hear about how you become such a generous person – where do you think your generosity comes from?
I’ve been very fortunate to come from a culturally and economically diverse background. One side of my family is Palestinian coming from meager financial means. Where as the other side of my family, deriving mostly from Anglo-Saxon, Irish, English Scottish ancestry healing from the Midwest mostly Chicago area, had money and influence. A common thread between both sides is the importance of kindness, empathy, generosity, regardless of where you come from what your background is, that one should universally bring respect love and compassion to all. Both sides of my family have always stressed the importance of taking care of the ones around you making people feel comfortable feel welcome feel important. Generosity is not to be only executed by the privileged. In fact, most of the times the ones that have the least are the most generous. So I was blessed through my upbringing learning by example through my family and their interaction with strangers, friends adversaries to always practice generosity. On my Palestinian side, Arab/Semitic cultural practices hold generosity in extremely high regard as one of the most important characteristics that should be practiced towards everyone regardless of their association they’re standing etc. And then, on my other side of the family, of course, similar cultural practices, and especially Irish and Scottish customs share very parallel themes. I learned very young that wealth was not just a number. That richness came in many different forms, and that to practice generosity, empathy kindness makes one just as noble, if not more than a King. Practicing it, putting it out in the either is almost more satisfying and enriching than receiving it.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
My name is Gregory Freeman Farah, and I’m a Palestinian American, born and raised in the Great State of New Mexico, The Land Of Enhancement! In my late teens, I left New Mexico for education, Wanderlust & adventure, and by my early 30s I moved back permanently to follow a turquoise dream of immersing myself in the Contemporary Native American and Southwest Contemporary Fine Arts.

From around 2011 to 2016 I was fortunate enough to work for the RC Gorman Estate spending my time between Taos and Santa Fe New Mexico. In March 2016, with the help of friends and family, we launched FaraHNHeight Fe Art Gallery in Taos, NM with the vision of showcasing, platforming, and promoting the Contemporary Native American Art genre past and present. The retail galleries are now permanently based in Santa Fe, New Mexico however, we still collaborate with many local businesses, mostly boutiques, hotels, libation tasting rooms, restaurants, etc curating high traffic tourist destination common areas throughout New Mexico mostly Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Taos, and historic town of Lincoln.

We focus, mostly on living, working, contemporary, indigenous artist throughout the Americas. We also showcase & broker historic legacy artists in the Contemporary Native Art genre, as well as Southwest contemporary artists past and present. Since Covid we have slowed down a bit in regards to artist features. Up until 2020 we were doing monthly exhibitions, but since, we do less features, mostly focusing on maybe three or four artists a year doing solo shows or group exhibitions. We very much like to feature at least one or two new early career artists a year that perhaps have never done or had the opportunity to participate in a gallery show before or never been in the limelight. We also maintain a steady stable of wonderfully talented artists that we’ve been working with since 2016.

Our largest annual exhibition since 2018 is The Sovereign Santa Fe Expo held at the historic Lafonda On The Plaza hotel on the Santa Fe Plaza. That Exhibition is a multi day Pop Up coinciding with Santa Fe Indian market the third weekend in August where we invite and sell exclusively living working Contemporary Native indigenous artists. For The Sovereign Santa Fe 2024 Expo (SSF2024) we will once again be collaborating with Sky Eagle and our good friend and artist, Dante Biss Grayson, and his team, interweaving Contemporary Native American Fashion with Fine Art.

FaraHNHeight Fine Art also does collection consulting for both private and public collections. We’re very eager, not only to share our enthusiasm for the work, but also educate and bring awareness to the Contemporary Native American Art genre, and some of the up-and-coming, creatives working within that field, along with the legends and elders that paved the way. We help our clients both purchase and sell art engaging in more Fine Art brokerage, helping facilitate auction sales and collaborating with many other entities in our network, such as other galleries, interior decorators, museums & academic institutions.

In addition to The Sovereign Santa Fe 2024 Expo, we already have slated two solo exhibitions for two different mid career artist that we’re very excited about for 2024. For the month of July will be showcasing True Archdale, a contemporary multimedia artist who lives in Whitefish, Montana. True was born and raised in Wolf Point, Montana and is a member of the Assiniboine Tribe. Her juxtaposition of abstract themes, tribal influenced designs, and defragmented indigenous iconography are mesmerizing. The second solo show that we already have on the calendar is going to be with Native Hawaiian artist Roland Kuikamana Van Loon. In Roland’s own words…. “I believe in uniting humanity in the common cause of appreciating and protecting our freedom to dream, our precious time on Earth, and our boundless courage that is the creative spirit.”

So the future is bright I continue to just count my blessings and fill my time, and my cup with the appreciation that I have the unique privilege of working in such a sacred space in the creative arts, dealing with artists themselves and the many fans, and entities and appreciate their magic.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
1. Willingness to work with others. 2. Humility.
3. Enthusiasm and passion to be involved in the arts

Well, as someone that usually gives a lot of unsolicited advice, that should be mostly taken with a grain of salt, I would say the most important of those three is the last one; the enthusiasm and passion to be doing what it is that your to do. That would have to come first. So regardless of what you’re wanting to do you know be in Art dealer broker gallery Director if you want to be an artist yourself if you want to be a plumber if you want to be a concert promoter, first and foremost you gotta have the enthusiasm and passion to get involved learn the trade, fall & get back up. And I’m stressing that it should be like all encompassing like all aspects of whatever Avenue like anyone that’s involved in any aspect of whatever field you want to get into even if you don’t think it applies to you you should still wanna like associate with those people get all the knowledge you can from them hang out with them and see what their daily routine is like just break bread with them just surround yourself with people that are in the field or in the business of whatever you want pursue because you never know where you’re going to find inspiration. And by immersing yourself in whatever field, you have to have the willingness to learn and work from other people, and have the humility and the hunger to just kind of want to get involved, regardless. I mean, that’s obviously easier said than done not everyone can just like intern, or afford to just kind of immerse themselves in a field and wait-and-see what happens. But at least for me, not only by taking a leap of faith and just surrounding myself with people that are in the line of work that I wanted to be in and showing authentic excitement and passion to get involved, but also the individuals that I see that are like on the come up you know new artists new people that want to get involved, etc., the ones that I take seriously and really want to help are the ones that show a little humility but are also just really excited and want to be a part of it and are willing to get involved regardless of the outcome.

What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?
Well, I don’t necessarily have the best coping mechanisms and it’s something I’m working on. Being in my early 40s there’s probably a lot of unhealthy traits patterns and routines that I’ve gotten away with for too long that are starting to catch up to me so I am working on that just trying to be cognizant and understanding, and not be too hard on myself. But also just acknowledge that there might be healthier options and that it’s in my power and I have the ability to change and develop and strengthen new routines a new strategies across-the-board for all kinds of things, my mental health, physical health relationships, both personal and business, etc.

In regards to specifically dealing with being & or feeling overwhelmed, My most common fight or flight response is to self isolate. But that’s usually not the most healthy thing to do. A challenge for me has always been my managerial skills and managerial execution of myself. Although I like to work with others, and consider myself a people person, I tend to try to do things by myself I don’t like to ask for help, and I’m not very good at managing myself. So I’m trying to work on that. I’m trying to plan ahead not wait till the last minute try to implement healthy ways of executing things. I need to do so I don’t get overwhelmed in the first place but if the overwhelming is inevitable, I need to ask for help. But I find the most preemptive way of dealing with all that is just to not get overwhelming in the first place not take on so much not over commit be realistic with time management skills be realistic with what I can get done. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel just go slower focus on Quality not quantity and enjoy life.

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