Your Browser is not Supported.

We recommend the latest version of Safari, Firefox, Chrome, or Microsoft Edge.

Amna Asghar

Amna Asghar’s work looks to the American experience through a multitude of cultural motifs: from her family’s Pakistani popular culture ephemera to Disney movies to Jean-Léon Gérôme’s orientalist paintings, to Hudson River School works, to currents of contemporary political thought. Asghar draws from her own life in the Detroit area where she grew up and now resides, making sophisticated works that mix imagery across cultures, creating conversation between communities.

Interview

Amna Asghar Interviewed for The Museum of Non-visible Art

Amna Asghar was interviewed by Brainard Carey for The Museum of Non-Visible Art on Yale Radio. Asghar discusses the backstory behind the title of her 2023 solo exhibition at Klaus von Nichtssagend gallery, what she is currently reading, the cinematic and art historical references in her work, and more.

News

Amna Asghar is Participating in Commissioner Detroit

Amna Asghar is a part of the Commissioner Detroit Inaugural Artist Editions, a program that brings together locals and artists in their cities. Click here to watch a video of Asghar discussing her process.

klausgallery.cloud

Amna Asghar: Studio Remix

Edition No.8 of KLAUSGALLERY.CLOUD focuses on Amna Asghar’s studio practice. This edition takes an indepth look at the reference materials and the methods in creating the paintings.

Review

Amna Asghar on Reclaiming Orientalist Imagery

Emily Watlington interviewed Amna Asghar about her practice for Art in America.

museum exhibition

Amna Asghar solo exhibition at MoCAD

Amna Asghar's first solo museum exhibition, Well Wishes, is on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit. Well Wishes features works that intertwine Asghar’s familial archive with found images from American and Pakistani popular cultures. The exhibition suggests that art is a technology that can flatten time, shorten geographical distance, and speak across cultural borders. The exhibition runs June 4 - August 8, 2021.

interview

Amna Asghar interviewed for the Whitney Museum about the Andy Warhol show

Amna Asghar is interviewed about the influence of Andy Warhol on the occasion of the Whitney Museum's "Andy Warhol: A to B and Back Again."

Amna Asghar

b. 1984 Detroit, MI
lives and works in Detroit and the Bronx, New York

Education

2014
MFA, Rhode Island School of Design

2007
BFA, Michigan State University

2007
Michigan State University Study Abroad, “Music Art & Language”, Bregenz, Austria

Solo Exhibitions

2023
A Meadow in the Clouds, Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery, New York

2021
Placid, Still & Eternal, Belle Isle Viewing Room, Detroit, MI
Well Wishes, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Detroit, MI. Curated by Jova Lynne

2019
Portals, Klaus von Nichtssagend, New York

2017
Jhankaar, Klaus von Nichtssagend, New York
The Armory Show FOCUS Section, Harmony Murphy Gallery, New York. Curated by Jarrett Gregory

2007
A Colony of Oscillating Alliances, Gallery 114, Michigan State University

Group Exhibitions

2022
87 Franklin Inaugural, Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery, New York

2021
Halal Metropolis, Stamps Gallery at the University of Michigan Stamps School of Art and Design, Ann Arbor, MI. Curated by Sally Howell, Osman Kahn, and Razi Jafri
Stretched, Arlington Arts Center, Arlington, VA

2020
Halal Metropolis, Stamelos Gallery Center in Dearborn, MI. Curated by Sally Howell, Osman Kahn, and Razi Jafri

2019
Parallels and Peripheries: Migration and Mobility, VisArts, Rockville, MD. Curated by Larry Ossei-Mensah
Halal Metropolis, Indus Detroit, Detroit, MI. Traveled to Stamelos Gallery Center, Univeristy of Michigan, Dearborn, January 17-April 3, 2020. Curated by Sally Howell, Osman Kahn, and Razi Jafri
Hedonist Buddhist, Washington Project for the Arts, Washington D.C.

2018
What We Loved Was Not Enough, Super Dutchess, New York
Myth, Memory, and Migration: Stories from the Asian Diaspor, NARS Foundation, Brooklyn, NY. Curated by Tiffany Jaeyeon Shin

2017
Cutting Room Floor, Karst and Gorse, Wappingers Falls, NY
(O), The Stranger, Hotel Art Pavilion, Brooklyn, NY. Curated by Loney Abrams
In Search of Miss Ruthless, Para Site, Hong Kong, CN
Open Shelf Library: The Stacks, Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, Denver, CO
Whitney Houston Biennial, Greatest Love of All, New York, NY. Curated by C Finley
Cutting Room Floor, Karst and Gorse, Hudson, NY
Through Thick and Thin: Image Painting Today, Erin Cluley Gallery, Dallas, TX
Nasty Women Exhibition, The Knockdown Center, Queens, NY

2016
Signaling to the Cipher Towards a Segway, Field Projects, Online Exhibition, Curated by Jesse David Penridge
80 x 80, Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC
Flat Foldability, Harmony Murphy Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Typecast,, Hillyer Art Space, Washington, DC. Curated by Jarvis DuBois

2014
Storage and Transport, Hawkeye Crates, Brooklyn, NY. Curated by Carl Johns
The Last Brucennial, Vito Schnabel & the Bruce High Quality Foundation, New York

2013
At Your Leisure, 111 Front Street Gallery 200, Brooklyn, NY
Ten-X, Community College of Rhode Island, Warwick, RI

2011
Cluster Bomb, The Bowery Poetry Club-Elizabeth Murray Art Wall, New York, NY

2009
Enak Enak, Bauchhund Gallery, Berlin, Germany
Bring Down pt.1, Ludwig-Lowe Hofe. Berlin, Germany
Bring Down pt.2, Altelierhof Kreuzberg, Berlin, Germany

2007
3rd Annual Self-Portrait Exhibition, Juror: Matthew Ivan Cherry, Zhou B. Art Center, Chicago, IL
Online Self-Portrait Exhibition, Zhou B. Art Center, Chicago, IL

Bibliography

2021
Barron, Sara, “Amna Asghar and Damon Davis explore identity in MOCAD summer 2021 exhibitions”, Detroit Metro Times, Jun 4, 2021

2019
Stevenson Jonathan, “Amna Asghar: Plumbing Orientalism”, Two Coats of Paint, October 8, 2019
Watlington, Emily, “Amna Asghar on Reclaiming Orientalist Imagery”, Art in America, September 20, 2019

2017
AQNB, “The fickle ruptures between familiarity + alienation in Amna Asghar + Alex Ito’s (O)”, The Stranger at New York’s Hotel Art Pavilion, September 6th, 2017
Tarar, Suljuk Mustansar, “At the Armory Art Show”, The Friday Times, June 16th 2017
Brewer, Jenny, “What if Warhol was Pakistani?: artist Amna Asghar explores her Muslim American identity”, It’s Nice That, March 8th 2017
Blake, Rebecca, “International Woman’s Day Yields Treasure Troves of Work by Women”, Graphic Artists Guild, March 13 2017
Editors, “Five Trends We Spotted at New York’s Armory Show”, AnOtherMag.com, March 7 2017
Abrams, Loney, “9 Armory Artworks that Actually Mean Something”, Artspace, March 3 2017
Artsy Editorial, “20 Artists to Watch at The Armory Show”, March 1 2017
Lannin, Kelsey, “9 Eye-Grabbing Works from UNTITLED, San Francisco”, The Creators Project, Jan 27 2017

2016
Do Your Own Dishes, quarterly zine, October 2016
Destroyer, No Pop Gallery, New Haven, CT, Summer 2016
Winston, Tyrell, Amna Asghar Studio Visit, MTV RE:DEFINE, March 2016

RESIDENCIES
2010 Artist in Residence, Contemporary Artists Center-Woodside, Troy, NY
2009 Artist in Residence, Ox-Bow, Fall Residency, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Saugatuck, MI
2009 Artist in Residence, Culturia, Berlin, Germany