Two Pakistani-American women artists have earned recognition among the 15 most prominent artists currently featured in museums across the United States, according to a recent list published by American magazine Artnet News. Anila Agha and Shahzia Sikander have garnered significant attention in the American art world, yet tragically, Agha's groundbreaking work has never been exhibited in Pakistan.
Anila Agha's rise to prominence followed an unconventional path, as noted by Ben Davis in the Artnet piece. She burst onto the international art scene in 2014 when her stunning installation "Intersections" swept both the jury and public choice awards at ArtPrize in Michigan. This massive cube sculpture uses intricate sculptural details and a single light source to create a mesmerizing interplay of light and shadow that covers viewers in patterns cut into the metal. Experiencing the iterations of light and shadow produced by Agha's work resembles a spiritual journey, reminiscent of the soul's own struggles.
Agha's artistic achievements have earned her global recognition, with solo exhibitions at prestigious institutions including the Seattle Art Museum, Crow Museum of Asian Art in Texas, the Cincinnati Art Museum, and the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. The Westmoreland Art Museum in Pittsburgh recently concluded an exhibition titled "Interwoven," showcasing two decades of Agha's artistic production. The exhibition title reflects Agha's inspiration drawn from the delicate needlework and crafts that adorn Pakistani women's lives.
This month, thousands of visitors to the Crow Museum, the Michener Art Museum in Pennsylvania, and the Seattle Asian Art Museum will encounter Agha's work as their first, and perhaps only, introduction to the geometric principles of Islamic art in its modern iteration. Her sculptures and drawings demonstrate that art doesn't require human forms to achieve beauty, illustrating the inherent majesty and grace of geometric forms. The integration of organic motifs featuring flowers and plants reflects the natural world's inherent geometry.
Agha's artistic representation offers a dramatic departure from the typical associations most Americans have with the Muslim faith, as many remain unaware of Islamic art's existence. Western and colonizing narratives have systematically erased the artistic dimensions of Islam and Muslims, making it easier to dehumanize people perceived as lacking their own understanding and reproduction of creation's beauty. These factors make the absence of Agha's work in Pakistan particularly tragic.
Pakistan represents a unique type of immigrant nation, with virtually no middle-class family lacking relatives abroad. Empty seats appear at every dinner table, and long-distance video calls mark every happy occasion. Indeed, Pakistani people constitute one of the country's greatest exports, working as both low-skilled laborers and masterful artists in distant corners of the world. This reality creates bifurcated identities, with Pakistan serving as the taproot to which other hyphenated identities attach.
Sadly, Pakistan's public culture fails to acknowledge this truth, maintaining a tendency to suggest that those who have left are somehow less Pakistani. This self-sabotaging attitude prevents the successes earned by Pakistanis abroad from benefiting those who need them most or the homeland that produced them. The fact that Agha's work hasn't received proper recognition in Pakistan stems largely from this problematic thinking.
The contradiction becomes apparent when considering how Pakistan's elite, with their wealth stashed abroad while pretending to live in Pakistan, are considered truly Pakistani, while immigrant artists who left due to limited opportunities are deemed lesser Pakistanis. The Pakistani art scene particularly suffers from this dynamic, with "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" politics determining authenticity tests set by an elite unwilling to face artistic criticism.
Pakistani audiences deserve to experience the scintillating work of an artist born and raised in Pakistan, trained at the National College of Arts, whose work reflects Pakistani life's contradictions, breathtaking beauty, and haunting tragedy. Recognizing the brilliance of a Pakistani artist like Agha, who has succeeded in an often racist and Islamophobic Western art scene, means recognizing all Pakistanis' incredible potential.
Pakistan's future generations need more than CEOs and tech geniuses as role models; they need artists like Anila Agha whose work can open new avenues of inspiration once it finally comes home to Pakistan. The country's cultural landscape would be enriched by embracing and celebrating the achievements of its diaspora artists who continue to carry Pakistan's artistic heritage to international stages.
