Anila Quayyum Agha (born 1965, in

Lahore, Pakistan Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city. ...

) is a Pakistani–American cross-disciplinary artist. Agha explores social and gender roles, global politics, cultural multiplicity, and mass media within drawing, painting, and large-scale installations. In 2014, Agha's piece ''Intersections'' won the international art competition, Artprize, twice over with the Public Vote Grand Prize and the Juried Grand Prize in a tie with Sonya Clark, the first time in Artprize's history.

Education

Agha studied at

National College of Arts The National College of Arts (colloquially known as NCA) is a public university located in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. Overview National College of Arts - A Federal Chartered Institute is the oldest art school in Pakistan and the second oldest i ...

, Lahore, Pakistan, where she studied Textile Design, receiving her

Bachelor of Fine Arts A Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) is a standard undergraduate degree for students for pursuing a professional education in the visual, fine or performing arts. It is also called Bachelor of Visual Arts (BVA) in some cases. Background The Bachelor ...

in 1989. She continued her studies in the United States at the

University of North Texas The University of North Texas (UNT) is a public research university in Denton, Texas. It was founded as a nonsectarian, coeducational, private teachers college in 1890 and was formally adopted by the state 11 years later."Denton Normal School," ...

, earning a

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admini ...

in Fiber Arts in 2004.

Career

Agha's experiences living within the boundaries of different faiths and cultures such as Islam and Christianity and Pakistan and the United States, has deeply influenced her art. Through her work she explores cultural and social issues that affect women in patriarchal societies along with the immigrant experience of alienation and transience.

Academic

In 2008 Agha moved to Indianapolis to teach at

Herron School of Art Herron School of Art and Design, officially IU Herron School of Art and Design, is a public art school at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) in Indianapolis, Indiana. It is a professional art school and has been accredite ...

, where she was the Associate Professor of Drawing. In 2020, she was appointed Morris Eminent Scholar in Art at Augusta University in Georgia.

Arts

Drawing and painting

Working from her background in textile and fabric art and design, Agha uses a combination of textile processes such as embroidery, wax, dyes, and silk-screen printing within her drawings and paintings. She creates patterns based on ancient

Islamic geometric patterns Islamic geometric patterns are one of the major forms of Islamic ornament, which tends to avoid using figurative images, as it is forbidden to create a representation of an important Islamic figure according to many holy scriptures. The geom ...

and Islamic interlace patterns through hand cutting, laser cutting, and sewing on paper. She uses embroidery as a drawing method to bridge the gap between modern materials and historical patterns of traditional oppression and domestic servitude. She questions the gendering of textile work as domesticated and its exclusion of it being considered an art form.

Installation

In 2013 Agha started to explore working with light and shadow, in her piece ''Intersections'', a 6.5' laser-cut wood cube encasing a light bulb, she pushed the binaries of public and private, light and shadow, and static and dynamic by relying on the symmetry of geometric design and the interpretation of the cast shadows. The walls of the cube showcase Moorish patterns inspired from the

Alhambra The Alhambra (, ; ar, الْحَمْرَاء, Al-Ḥamrāʾ, , ) is a palace and fortress complex located in Granada, Andalusia, Spain. It is one of the most famous monuments of Islamic architecture and one of the best-preserved palaces of the ...

, a place where Islamic and Christian worlds intersect. Growing up as a girl in Pakistan, Agha was not allowed to visit the mosques because of her gender. It was from these memories of exclusion and of visiting the Alhambra that Agha started to think about all the problems that arise because of exclusion and wanted to create something that would include all, regardless of race, gender, and ethnicity. Intersections_at_GRAM

Awards and recognition

Agha's work has been exhibited in solo and group shows across the U.S. and in countries as far reaching as United Arab Emirates, India, and Spain. She has been represented by Sundaram Tagore Gallery in New York City and Talley Dunn Gallery, Dallas, TX. Along with winning Artprize Agha has been the recipient of other awards and grants, including the Efroymson Arts Fellowship (2009), the Creative Renewal Fellowship from the Indianapolis Arts Council (2013), an Indiana Arts and Humanities grant, the

Cincinnati Art Museum The Cincinnati Art Museum is an art museum in the Eden Park neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1881, it was the first purpose-built art museum west of the Alleghenies, and is one of the oldest in the United States. Its collection of ov ...

’s 2017 Schiele Prize, the Sculptors and Painters Grant from the

Joan Mitchell Foundation Joan Mitchell (February 12, 1925 – October 30, 1992) was an American artist who worked primarily in painting and printmaking, and also used pastel and made other works on paper. She was an active participant in the New York School of artis ...

(2019), and the Smithsonian Artist Fellowship (2020).

Collections

Anila Quayyum Agha's work is included in the following selected collections: * Eskenazi Art Museum, Bloomington, IN *

Grand Rapids Art Museum The Grand Rapids Art Museum (GRAM) is an art museum located in Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States, with collections ranging from Renaissance to Modern Art and special collections on 19th and 20th-century European and American art. Its holdings ...

, Grand Rapids, MI *

Peabody Essex Museum The Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) in Salem, Massachusetts, US, is a successor to the East India Marine Society, established in 1799. It combines the collections of the former Peabody Museum of Salem (which acquired the Society's collection) and the ...

, Salem, MA *

, Cincinnati, OH *

Toledo Museum of Art The Toledo Museum of Art is an internationally known art museum located in the Old West End neighborhood of Toledo, Ohio. It houses a collection of more than 30,000 objects. With 45 galleries, it covers 280,000 square feet and is currently in th ...

, Toledo, OH *

Kiran Nadar Museum of Art The Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) is a private modern and contemporary art museum with locations in New Delhi and Noida. Established in 2010, it is India's first private museum dedicated to modern and contemporary art. The core collection of ...

, Delhi, India *

Weisman Art Museum The Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum is an art museum at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Founded in 1934 as University Gallery, the museum was originally housed in an upper floor of the university's Northrop Auditorium. In 19 ...

, Minneapolis, MN

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Agha, Anila Quayyum Living people 1965 births 21st-century American women artists American installation artists Artists from Lahore National College of Arts alumni Pakistani emigrants to the United States Pakistani women artists