'Interwoven' exhibit at Westmoreland Museum to spotlight Pakistani-American visual artist

Steel lightboxes, intricate embroidery, wall sculptures and room-size installations are among the pieces that will be showcased at an upcoming retrospective exhibit of the works of artist Anila Quayyum Agha at the Westmoreland Museum of American Art.

“Anila Quayyum Agha: Interwoven” will bring together two decades of art in different mediums from the Indianapolis-based Pakistani-American artist, who is renowned for her explorations of women’s history, spirituality and the American immigrant experience.

The free exhibit, which will run from Oct. 6 to Jan. 5, 2025, is a monumental installation for the local museum, according to Director and CEO Silvia Filippini-Fantoni.

“The sort of ambitiousness of the whole scope is sort of bigger than most of the exhibitions we have done before, starting with the scale of some of these objects,” Filippini-Fantoni said. “Her work can go minimalistic, but a lot of it has an important size, it creates these kinds of immersive experiences, and it’s going to take up, I would say, half of the institution, half of the museum.”

“Interwoven” will stretch across multiple galleries in the museum, according to Chief Curator Jeremiah William McCarthy. Many of the works on display will come directly from the artist’s studio, but others are on loan from museums across the country and private collections.

“I think people would expect a show of this sort of size and ambition from a much bigger museum,” McCarthy said. “It’s really going to be an ambitious presentation.”

Sculpture and immersive installations will feature prominently in the exhibit, but it will also contain smaller, more detailed pieces of embroidery, painting and drawing, he added.

“It’s really a whole range of things that people will see,” he said. “I know, one of the things I’m absolutely sure about, is they’ll be surprised and thrilled.”

Following its debut at the Westmoreland, “Interwoven” will go on tour through 2026, with some of its first stops at the Wichita Art Museum in Kansas and the Michener Art Museum in Doylestown.

Artistic retrospective

The exhibit has been a long time in the making for McCarthy, who has wanted to spotlight Agha’s work for years.

“(Agha) is able to synthesize a lot of really complicated ideas about the role of women in society, ideas around spirituality, these really heavy concepts, and she grounds them in an extraordinary experience,” McCarthy said. “When you see these works, you’re wowed by the beauty of the work, and you become a bit vulnerable, and you start to think through some complicated ideas. For me, that’s the most powerful kind of art.”

Pieces on display will include several of Agha’s signature “lightbox” sculptures, which are steel boxes through which light is projected to make complex patterns in a room. McCarthy wanted to put those works in context with the rest of Agha’s career as an artist.

“I really thought Anila’s work was fitting of a deep dive and something beyond just the light boxes, where people could see really the full range of her production and understand the ideas that motivated her practice,” he said.

The connection to steel, McCarthy said, brings a Western Pennsylvania thread to the exhibit.

“Something that’s important for our region and our presentation is the material of a lot of Anila’s work is steel,” he said. “These light boxes are actually laser-cut, lacquered steel, and they have a light inside that emits these beautiful shadows that sort of dance around the room. Steel is something that has meant so much to the people in this area, and this is steel like they’ve never seen it before.”

The exhibit also includes “A Flood of Tears (2010/2023),” a room-sized sculpture of hundreds of upholstery needles suspended by glass-beaded strands.

“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,” Agha said in a statement. “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.”

Culture and contemporary art

Bringing together a collection of Agha’s work fits into a goal of the Westmoreland Museum to present varying perspectives on American art.

“I think with our museum, what we’re trying to do, we have that word in the title, we’re a museum devoted to American art. With every show and every program, we’re defining and redefining that for people,” McCarthy said. “America is made of many things, and she’s showing you the richness of those stories.”

“She’s an immigrant, she’s a woman, she’s trying to reconcile different cultures and ideas with her work. I think this is a very important message to send out right now in the world,” said Filippini-Fantoni. “We are so divided — I think Anila’s message is ultimately one of unity.”

The exhibition also shines a spotlight on the Westmoreland Museum as a place for contemporary art.

“We’re a regional museum, but we’re having national conversations,” McCarthy said.

“I’m not interested in us solely being a space for artists from western Pennsylvania, and for showing western Pennsylvania art. I think because of that word in the title, we have a duty to expand that. I think what we’ve done with the programming is, alongside exhibitions and programs focusing on local artists and promoting the careers of local artists, we’re now bringing world-class contemporary art to the region, too.”