The Seattle Asian Art Museum just got a big glow up with the debut of Anila Quayyum Agha: Geometry of Light, the first-ever solo exhibition by a Pakistani American artist in the museum’s 90-year history. Known for her large-scale, light-filled installations, Agha transforms ordinary gallery spaces into striking environments of shadow, pattern, and reflection.

The exhibition features her signature laser-cut steel sculptures – ornamental, geometric forms that, when illuminated, cast intricate shadows across walls, ceilings, and even onto visitors themselves. Step into one of Agha’s rooms and you’re immediately taken in by the shifting patterns inspired by Islamic architecture, South Asian textiles, and global design traditions. As José Carlos Diaz, the exhibition curator and SAM’s Deputy Director for Art, noted at a press preview, “This is more of an installation that becomes sort of this sacred space.”

Geometry of Light is organized into three sections, tracing Agha’s evolution from early paper and textile-based works to the monumental illuminated sculptures that have become her hallmark. A centerpiece of the show is A Beautiful Despair, a steel cube whose filigreed surfaces cast lace-like shadows across every inch of the gallery. Lighting is integral to the piece – Agha worked closely with curators to select wall colors and sight lines that amplify the kaleidoscopic effect. The Pacific Northwest’s palette of blues and grays influenced the tones, connecting her global inspirations to the local landscape.

Based in Indianapolis but born in Lahore, Pakistan, in 1965, Agha came of age during a time of political and cultural transformation. Her early life was shaped by the restrictions women faced in public and sacred spaces, experiences that continue to inform her interest in themes of gender, identity, and belonging. 

Medium and Metaphor

She studied at the National College of Arts in Lahore, where she trained in textiles – an art form often dismissed as “craft” rather than fine art. For Agha, the tools of that discipline – the needle, thread, and fabric – became both medium and metaphor, a way to assert women’s voices in a male-dominated field. Or as Diaz noted, “catalogs talk about the needle being sort of a weapon of choice as an artist instead of a brush and a palette.”

After moving to the United States in 1999, she expanded her practice to include paper, sculpture, and eventually steel. Her breakthrough came in 2014 when her installation Intersections won both the Public and Juried Grand Prizes at ArtPrize in Grand Rapids, Michigan – a rare double honor that brought her work onto the international stage. Her piece, A Beautiful Despair at SAAM, harkens back to that award-winning installation. Since then, her works have been shown worldwide, even inspiring marriage proposals within her glowing chambers of light and shadow, according to Diaz.

Agha’s installations change the way a room feels. The patterns slow you down, as what might seem like simple light and shadow becomes something richer that draws you in and holds your attention. In the end, Agha’s art doesn’t just fill a space, it opens one.

Anila Quayyum Agha: Geometry of Light is on view now at the Seattle Asian Art Museum. Special programs include evening open houses, DJ nights, and storytelling workshops, extending the spirit of the exhibition into music and literature.