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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of her 2023 solo exhibition at Klaus von Nichtssagend gallery, what she is currently reading, the cinematic and art historical references in her work, and more.

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.

Putside 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.

Review

Amna Asghar and Damon Davis explore identity in MOCAD summer 2021 exhibitions

Sara Barron reviewed Amna Asghar's solo show at MoCAD for the Detroit Metro Times.

Review

Amna Asghar on Reclaiming Orientalist Imagery

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

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
M.F.A., Rhode Island School of Design

2007
B.F.A., 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, NY

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

2019
Portals, Klaus von Nichtssagend, New York, NY

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

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

Group Exhibitions

2023
Get Together, Reyes | Finn, Detroit, MI

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

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

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

2019
Parallels and Peripheries: Migration and Mobility, curated by Larry Ossei-Mensah, VisArts, Rockville, MD
Halal Metropolis, curated by Sally Howell, Osman Kahn, and Razi Jafri, Indus Detroit, Detroit, MI
Hedonist Buddhist, Washington Project for the Arts, Washington D.C.

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

2017
Cutting Room Floor, Karst and Gorse, Wappingers Falls, NY
(O), The Stranger, curated by Loney Abrams, Hotel Art Pavilion, Brooklyn, NY
In Search of Miss Ruthless, Para Site, Hong Kong, China
Open Shelf Library: The Stacks, Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, Denver, CO
Whitney Houston Biennial, curated by C Finley, Greatest Love of All, New York, NY
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, curated by Jesse David Penridge, Field Projects, online viewing room
80 x 80, Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC
Flat Foldability, Harmony Murphy Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Typecast,, Hillyer Art Space, curated by Jarvis DuBois, Washington, DC.

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

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

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

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

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

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