Farrington is a graduate of Howard University (BFA) and American University (MA), and subsequently obtained her MPh and PhD in Art History & philosophy at the CUNY Graduate Center in 1997 with a dissertation titled “Faith Ringgold: The Early Works & the Evolution of the Thangka Paintings”.[2]
Her 2005 book Creating Their Own Image was the first comprehensive history of African-American female artists, from slavery to the present day. Her 2015 book, African-American Art: A Visual and Cultural History, is an updated survey on African-American art.
She was the William & Camille Cosby Endowed Scholar at Atlantic University/Spelman College from 2008 to 2007.[3] In 2009, she received a grant from Creative Capital Art and the Andy Warhol Foundation to work on a monograph on Emma Amos.[4]
On February 7, 2014, Farrington delivered a lecture, "The Artistic World before Racism: A Compelling Presentation of the African Diaspora Portrayed from Antiquity to the Present," at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.[5]
African-American Art: A Visual and Cultural History (Oxford University Press, 2015)
Creating Their Own Image: the History of African-American Women Artists (New York: Oxford University, 2005; 2nd ed. 2011).[6] Awarded the 2005 Letitia Woods Brown Memorial Book Award from the American Association of Black Women Historians.[7]
Voices in Cloth: Story Quilts (Hattiesburg: University of Southern Mississippi, 2004)
A Real-World Guide to Academic Publishing (New York: Millennium Fine Arts Publishing, 2006)
Faith Ringgold (San Francisco: Pomegranate Fine Arts Publishers, 2004)
Art on Fire: the Politics of Race and Sex in the Paintings of Faith Ringgold (New York: Millennium Fine Arts Publishing, 1999)
