Hangama Amiri

Selected Works

Video

Hangama Amiri – Bazaar, a Recollection of Home

Biography

Born in Kabul, Afghanistan in 1989, Hangama Amiri lives and works in New Haven, Connecticut. Amiri holds an MFA from Yale University where she graduated in 2020 from the Painting and Printmaking Department. The work of Hangama Amiri concentrates on topics such as feminism, geopolitics and gender. Pivotal in her artistic practice is the attention given to Afghan costumes and, more generally, to the Islamic culture. Amiri’s practice is based on the cutting and stitching of different Indian and Afghan fabrics and textile materials to create immersive compositions. Her artworks are meant to highlight the main issues of contemporary Afghan society and to celebrate Afghan women’s identities in visual art. ''As an Afghan refugee woman, I produce textile works that evoke my personal diaspora as a means to investigate the politics of gender in Islamic culture, while also celebrating feminine subjects that have been deemed taboo. My work begins by culling fabrics from stores in New York, which are imported from markets in India and bazaars in Afghanistan. I then cut and stitch together various textiles, fabrics, and clothing into visually seductive compositions as a way of celebrating Afghan women’s feminism and identities in visual art. The act of sewing these different sources together in my work becomes a metaphor for uniting fragmented identities that have had to live in multiple geographies around the world. In my fabric installations, I choose to not only forefront women-dominated spaces, such as beauty parlors, but also subversive depictions of items banned by the Taliban, such as red lipstick, shiny fabrics, and nail polish. I use these symbols to give Afghan women a sense of freedom and power in their own sensuality, sexuality, desire, and pleasure; this is in contrast to the Islamic norms of women’s bodies being something very private, secret, and hidden behind a veil.'' Hangama Amiri

Gallery Exhibitions

Other Venues

Selected Press

10.02.2023
ART IN AMERICA
Hangama Amiri’s Kaleidoscopic Textile Art Summons the Strength of Women in Afghanistan
09.02.2023
THE NEW YORK TIMES
An Artist Puts Kabul in a New Light (With Lipstick and Manicure)
06.02.2023
CULTURED MAG
Hangama Amiri Will Not Let Freedom for Afghanistan Women Be Forgotten
12.09.2022
GUERNICA
Back Draft: Hangama Amiri
14.06.2021
UNHCR
Afghan-Canadian refugee artist designs World Refugee Day Twitter emoji
16.04.2021
CBC
Afghan-Canadian artist Hangama Amiri stitches the idea of 'home' into stunning textile portraits
09.04.2021
WHITEWALL
Hangama Amiri Looks at Ideas of Home Through Textiles
08.01.2021
NERO EDITIONS
WOMEN’S BUSINESS | On memories, bazaars and Afghan feminism: a conversation with Hangama Amiri
21.12.2020
ART APART OF CULTURE
HANGAMA AMIRI | BAZAAR, A RECOLLECTION OF HOME
09.11.2020
MERCER CONTEMPORARY
Storytelling through Textiles
08.2017
FREE WOMEN WRITERS
Art Can Let Afghan Women Express Our Unique Selves

CV

Education

2020

MFA Yale School of Art, New Haven, United States

2012

BFA Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University, Halifax, Canada

2005

BFA Olimov College of Art, Dushanbe, Tajikistan

Selected solo exhibitions

2024

“Reminiscences II”, T293, Rome
“Circle of Friends”, Cooper Cole, Toronto
“A Homage To Home” Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, USA

2023

“Jamila, Henna” Further Down the Line, Liverpool, Uk

‘A Homage to Home’, Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut

2022

‘Reminiscences’ Union Pacific, London
‘Henna Night/Shabe Kheena’, David B. Smith, Denver, Colorado

2021

‘Mirrors and Faces’, Cooper Cole, Toronto, Canada
‘Wandering Amidst the Colors’, Albertz Benda, New York
‘Spectators of a New Dawn’, Towards Gallery, Toronto, Canada

2020

‘Bazaar, A Recollection of Home’, T293 Rome

2018

‘Ocean’s Edge’, Laurie Swim Gallery, Lunenburg, Canada

2017

‘We Rise Again: Portraits of Afghan Women’, Lunenburg School of the Arts, Canada

2014

‘Pastoral & Industrial’, Hermes, Halifax, Canada
2013

‘Topophilia’, Corridor Gallery, Halifax, Canada

‘At the Edge of the Shore’, Laurie Swim Gallery, Lunenburg, Canada

2011

‘The Wind-Up Dolls of Kabul’, Anna Leonowens Gallery, Halifax, Canada

Selected group exhibitions

2024

“of intimacy and quietude”, co-curated with Lincoln Dexter, Sid Motion Gallery, London
“Can the Afghan Speak?”, Kunsthall 3.14, Bergen, Norway 2023 Botany of Desire, Swivel Gallery, Brooklyn
“Silent Hands, Hayy Jameel, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia Memory is the Seamstress”, Green Art Gallery, Dubai, UAE Plug In ICA Biennial, Winnipeg, Canada
“Piecework”, Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa
“Rumi”, Aga Khan Museum, Toronto
“Thinking Historically in the Present”, Sharjah Biennial 15, Sharjah, UAE Narrative Threads: Fiber Art Today, The Moody Centre for the Arts, Houston, TX

2023

“MEMORY IS THE SEAMSTRESS”, Green Art Gallery, Dubai, UAE

‘Distance Between Homes’, Aga Khan Museum, Toronto

‘Thinking Historically in the Present’, Sharjah Biennale 15, United Arab Emirates

2022

‘Pop South Asia: Artistic Explorations in the Popular’, Sharjah Art Foundation, Al Shuwaiheen, United Arab Emirates
Arts Area, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
‘Songs of Spring’, Aout Gallery, Beirut

2021

‘Qatra Qatra (Drop by Drop)’, Gallerie delle Prigioni, Fondazione Imago Mundi, Treviso
‘Progetto Genesi. Arte e Diritti Umani’, Collezione Panza, Associazione Genesi, Italy
‘Everything Has Its Place’, Sevil Dolmacı Art Gallery, Istanbul
‘Hospitalet’, Danviken Hospital, Stockholm
‘THIS IS AMERICA’, Kunstraum Potsdam, Germany
‘Alphabetic Image’, Arsenal Contemporary, New York
‘Stockholm Sessions’, Carl Kostyal Gallery, Stockholm

2020

Yale Painting and Printmaking MFA, Perrotin Gallery, New York
‘Oh To Be A Painting’, Abigail Ogilvy Gallery, Boston

2019

‘Hold On, Hold Me’, Charles Moffett Gallery, New York

2018

‘Crying-Laughing’, Friends & Neighbours Gallery, Montreal, Canada

‘Here & There’, Studio Lab Gallery, New Glasgow, Canada
‘Stitch, Paint, Sculpt: Three Artist, Three Media’, Laurie Swim Gallery, Lunenburg, Canada
‘World of Co.’ Open Studio Exhibition, Sofia, Bulgaria

2017

‘Pause, a Break’, The Project Space Gallery, Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity, Banff, Alberta, Canada

2014

‘This Is The Canadian Earth’, Art Sales & Rental Gallery, Halifax, Canada

2013

‘My Feminism: The NSCAD Feminist Collective Group Show’, Anna Leonowens Gallery, Halifax, Canada
‘Dialogue With Nature’, White Rabbit Open Air Art Residency, Upper Economy, Canada
‘A little class goes along way’, Eyelevel Gallery, Halifax, Canada

2012

‘NSCAD Graduation Exhibition’, Anna Leonowens Gallery, Halifax, Canada

2011

‘Forever in Flux: Feminism in Dialogue’, Anna Leonowens Gallery, Halifax, Canada

2010

‘SoapBox Exhibition’, Anna Leonowens Gallery, Halifax, Canada