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The newest exhibition at the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, Anila Quayyum Agha: Flight Patterns, opens on Friday, February 24, 2023. The immersive exhibition will be on view to the public through Sunday, April 30, 2023. World-renowned Pakistani American artist Anila Quayyum Agha uses art to explore her dual experiences living in her native country and as an immigrant in the United States.
Although inspired by South Asian, Middle Eastern, and North African designs, her work exists outside of a single religious or cultural experience and instead invites viewers to explore the space in between. The Anila Quayyum Agha exhibition explores themes around the constructed boundaries of gender, race, religion, culture, and the natural environment that prevent dialogue and exchanges between world civilizations and presents viewers the opportunity to embrace the harmonies that exist within the shadows of cultural divergence.
Curated by Holly Keris, J. Wayne & Delores Barr Weaver Chief Curator of the Museum, Flight Patterns features two of Agha’s large sculptural installations. Each are internally lit and project intricate geometric patterns throughout the gallery enveloping visitors as they view the work. This exhibition also includes a selection of mixed media works and wall sculptures. This immersive experience invites visitors to participate in the shadow play, and, therefore become a part of the installation itself. The works A Beautiful Despair (2021) and This is NOT a Refuge! (2) (2022), were both recently on view in London at the Masterpiece London art fair.
“Anila Quayyum Agha is an internationally regarded contemporary artist who explores some of the most pressing global issues of our time,” Andrea Barnwell Brownlee, the George W. and Kathleen I. Gibbs Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Museum, said. “Throughout her visually arresting installations, which magnify the interplay between architecture, light, and pattern, she encourages dialogue, poses powerful questions, and opens new avenues for understanding.”
Agha has received numerous awards and grants, such as the Efroymson Art Fellowship, Cincinnati Art Museum’s 2017 Schiele Prize, the DeHaan Artist of Distinction Award twice (2018 and 2021) and the Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors award in 2019. She exhibited at the 2019 Venice Biennale in an external feminist project. In 2020, Agha received the prestigious Smithsonian Fellowship in the arts for 2021. She resides in Indianapolis, Indiana, and Augusta, Georgia, where she is a professor and the Eminent Morris Scholar of Fine Art at Augusta University.
This Anila Quayyum Agha exhibition is organized by the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens.
Highlighted related programming:
Artist Meet & Greet with Demonstration – Ana Kamiar
Kamiar’s series, The Watchers, is featured in Bank of America Concourse Shop, a venue for regional artists whose works share parallel themes to featured exhibitions.
February 24 | 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. | Free with Museum admission
Traditional Patterns of Pakistan Papercut with Artist Hiromi Moneyhun
February 26 | 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. | Members $50, Non-Members $65 | Registration required
Ceramic Lantern Making
March 14 | 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. | Members $50, Non-Members $65 | Registration required
March 16 | 12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. | Members $50, Non-Members $65 | Registration required
Look At That! Light, Dark, Patterns and Shadows: Anila Quayyum Agha: Flight Patterns
March 22 | 12 to 1 p.m. | Free | Online Event | Registration required
Virtual Culture & Conversation: Lecture with Artist Anila Quayyum Agha
April 5 | 7 to 8 p.m. | Free | Online Event | Registration required
To register for programming, visit cummermuseum.org/events.
For more information about the Museum’s permanent collection and special exhibitions, visit cummermuseum.org/visit/art.
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