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Anila Quayyum Agha: Interwoven
Anila Quayyum Agha: Interwoven surveys two decades of the artist’s practice across media, including sculpture, installation, embroidery, painting and drawing, and represents the most comprehensive exhibition to date of this important Pakistani-American visual artist. Whether immersive rooms of light and shadow or the most delicate, intimate drawings, Agha’s works prompt universal feelings of wonder and contemplation, disarming audiences with their beauty and allowing them to ponder deep questions regarding specific themes, such as the history of women, the role of spirituality, and the American immigrant experience.
Visitors can expect to encounter awe-inspiring installations such as 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), 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.”
The Westmoreland partnered with Imagineear to develop an audio guide for the exhibition that is narrated by Agha and The Westmoreland’s Chief Curator Jeremiah William McCarthy to provide deeper information about selected works.
The exhibition is organized by Jeremiah William McCarthy, Chief Curator, and Danny Volk, Assistant Curator, 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.
Anila Quayyum Agha: Interwoven is made possible by generous support from the Henry Luce Foundation, the Terra Foundation for American Art, the Hillman Foundation, The Heinz Endowments, the National Endowment for the Arts, and The Fine Foundation.
Looking for the Anila Quayyum Agha: Interwoven Press Kit?
Please click here and email info@thewestmoreland.com for the Access Code.