Born in 1987 in Warsaw, People's Republic of Poland, Noemi Conan completed her BA (Hons) in Painting and Printmaking at the Glasgow School of Art in 2021, followed by The Drawing Year 2021-2022, a postgraduate scholarship program at the Royal Drawing School in London. Through a cast of recurring characters - such as fierce female figures, felines, and ominous conifers - Conan draws on memories from her childhood in rural Poland during the economic transformation of the 1990s and early 2000s. Combining humor with elements of fantasy and horror, her work examines the legacy of socialist realism and neoliberal reform from a surreal, liminal perspective.
Conan was longlisted for the John Moores Painting Prize in Liverpool and the Jackson’s Painting Prize in London in 2020 and 2023, and was selected for Bloomberg New Contemporaries in Colchester and London in 2021. She was also shortlisted for the Ingram Prize in 2024. Her work has been exhibited internationally across Europe and is included in public and private collections, such as the Royal Collection, Soho House, London; The Fores Project, London; Urban Nation Museum, Berlin; Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow; and the Borgo Pignano Collection, Volterra, Pisa. Conan is currently pursuing a Master of Fine Arts at the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, in London. She lives and works in London.