The Westmoreland Museum of American Art Presents Landmark Exhibition and National Tour of Anila Quayyum Agha: Interwoven
GREENSBURG, Pennsylvania (July 16, 2024) — The Westmoreland Museum of American Art is proud to announce the groundbreaking exhibition Anila Quayyum Agha: Interwoven. On view at The Westmoreland from October 6, 2024 to January 5, 2025, Interwoven marks the largest and most comprehensive exhibition to date of the work of Anila Quayyum Agha, the distinguished Pakistani- American visual artist renowned for her profound visual explorations of women’s history, spirituality, and the American immigrant experience.
Anila Quayyum Agha: Interwoven spans two decades of Agha’s multifaceted practice, encompassing immersive installations, works on paper, paintings, and large-scale wall sculptures. Bringing together works from the artist’s own studio and significant loans from public and private collections, the exhibition includes work from every period of Agha’s impressive career. Agha’s conceptually rigorous and visually alluring artworks ground complicated ideas for viewers, using “patterns used to break patterns” as the New York Times put it in a recent profile of the artist, making Agha’s work particularly successful at amplifying contradictions and poetically conveying the layered dimensions of the American journey.
“We are honored to present Anila Quayyum Agha’s transformative body of work in this landmark exhibition,” said Silvia Filippini-Fantoni, Richard M. Scaife Director/CEO. “Agha’s art showcases not only her technical mastery of materials, but her unique perspective as a woman navigating cultural intersections. This exhibition will prompt universal feelings of wonder and contemplation, disarming audiences with its beauty and allowing them to ponder deep questions identity, belonging, and societal inclusivity.”
The exhibition is organized by Jeremiah William McCarthy, Chief Curator at The Westmoreland Museum of American Art. Following its debut at The Westmoreland Museum of American Art, the exhibition will embark on a national tour that includes the Wichita Art Museum, KS, and the Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, PA.
“I’m so grateful to Anila for her partnership over these past years and her trust in our institution to develop this ambitious exhibition,” says McCarthy. “As a Museum dedicated to the presentation of American art, we aim to constantly define and redefine these terms for visitors. Anila’s work asks us to reconsider the boundaries of culture, religion, and gender that oftentimes divide us and celebrate the shared humanity that transcends division.”
Visitors can expect to encounter awe-inspiring installations such as the debut of A Flood of Tears (2010/2023), a room-sized sculpture of hundreds of upholstery needles suspended by glistening glass- beaded strands. Agha’s signature light box pieces, such as All the Flowers Are for Me – Red (2016) and The Greys in Between (2018), will bathe visitors in immersive rooms of light and shadow. The exhibition contextualizes such iconic works with the artist’s explorations on paper. Agha’s drawings utilize patterns and words, printmaking techniques, waxes, dyes, beads, threads, Mylar, and even steel dust to create ornate forms that evoke Islamic architecture; spirituality across multiple religions; and traditional crafts. The exhibition untangles the conceptual threads that unite the artist’s two-dimensional and three- dimensional artworks.
“This show outlines my last 25 years of working in the United States, but it’s not a single story. I have multiple stories interwoven to create a tapestry that is colorful, varied, and patterned with beauty and light. It’s not just about the surface,” says Agha. “There are meditations on the place of women in both Pakistan and the United States, the importance of mutual solidarity, and the global devastation of climate change. I feel it is my responsibility to bring these through lines into my work.”
An accompanying exhibition catalogue, Anila Quayyum Agha: Interwoven, co-published by The Westmoreland and Dancing Foxes Press, Brooklyn, and distributed by D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers, Inc., features essays by curator Jeremiah William McCarthy, Salima Hashmi, Nadia Radwan, Javiaria Shahid, and Rafia Zakaria. Their essays explore Agha’s work through the lenses of biography, feminism, and art and architectural history. Copies will be available for purchase online and in the Museum’s shop.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Agha (b. 1965, Lahore, Pakistan) is internationally recognized for her award-winning large-scale installations that use light, shadow, and pattern to create inclusive shared experiences. She holds a BFA from the National College of Art, Lahore, Pakistan, and an MFA from the University of North Texas, Denton. She is Morris Eminent Scholar of Art, Augusta University, and was previously Associate Professor in Drawing at the Herron School of Art and Design, Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis. Major awards include the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant (2019) and the Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship (2021).
Agha’s work is in the collections of Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas; Chrysler Art Museum, Norfolk, Virginia; Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio; Columbia Museum of Art, South Carolina; Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University; Grand Rapids Art Museum, Michigan; Kiran Nader Art Museum, Delhi, India; Kunsthaus Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland; Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts; University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque; The Westmoreland Museum of
American Art, Greensburg, Pennsylvania; among many others. She is represented by Sundaram Tagore Gallery, New York.
PUBLIC EVENTS
A full slate of fun and engaging events will accompany Anila Quayyum Agha: Interwoven. More information and links to register will be available on the Museum’s website in September.
EXHIBITION SUPPORT
Anila Quayyum Agha: Interwoven is made possible by generous support from the Henry Luce Foundation, the Terra Foundation for American Art, the National Endowment for the Arts, The Heinz Endowments, and The Fine Foundation.
ABOUT THE WESTMORELAND MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART
Western Pennsylvania’s only museum dedicated to American art, The Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, is a place to share meaningful cultural experiences that open the door to new ideas, perspectives, and possibilities. The Westmoreland’s extraordinary permanent collection with its strong focus on the art and artists of Southwestern Pennsylvania is complemented by an impressive temporary exhibition schedule featuring both nationally traveling exhibitions and those organized by the Museum. Additionally, The Westmoreland presents a full slate of community-oriented events. More information is available at thewestmoreland.org and on the Museum’s Facebook and Instagram profiles. General admission to the Museum is free. The Museum’s operating hours are Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 10am-5pm. One can find more information on visiting the Museum at thewestmoreland.org/visit.
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