Masterpiece Presents: Anila Quayyum Agha
Anila Quayyum Agha, All the Flowers Are For Me, 2017, lacquered steel and halogen bulb, 60 x 60 x 60 inches, on view now at the Columbia Museum of Art. Photo: Drew Baron, Columbia Museum.
This year’s Masterpiece Presents features two monumental light installations by Pakistani-American artist Anila Quayyum Agha, represented by Sundaram Tagore Gallery. The artist is known for her award-winning, immersive light installations, and has been the subject of three solo museum shows in the past year.
For this special Masterpiece presentation, Agha has created an illuminated cube, fabricated from laser-cut steel into which she cuts elaborate patterns. Suspended and lit from within, the work casts lace-like floor-to-ceiling shadows that completely transform the surrounding environment, alluding to the richly ornamented public spaces such as mosques that Agha was excluded from as a female growing up in Lahore. Agha’s second installation at Masterpiece, This is NOT a Refuge II explores the loss of family and home that stems from displacement and resettlement.
