DALLAS, TX.- This spring, the Crow Museum of Asian Art unveils three exhibitions at its downtown Dallas Arts District location, showcasing the dynamic work of international and self-taught artists. The museum is presenting Cecilia Chiang: Don’t Tell Me What To Do, Anila Quayyum Agha: Let One Bird Sing, and The Shogun’s World: Japanese Maps from the MacLean Collection. Free and open to the public, each exhibition offers a unique perspective on culture, creativity and social justice, inviting visitors to experience a wide range of artistic expressions and narratives.

Anila Quayyum Agha: Let One Bird Sing marks the launch of a new exhibition series called Texas Ties that showcases artists with connections to the Lone Star State. Let One Bird Sing invites reflection on environmental degradation and the silencing of marginalized voices. Agha, who earned her Master of Fine Arts from the University of North Texas (UNT) in 2001 and lived in Texas for eight years, uses her art to address these pressing global issues.

Cecilia Chiang: Don’t Tell Me What To Do offers an intimate look into the self-taught artist’s creative journey. This marks 90-year-old Chiang’s first solo exhibition, providing a retrospective of four decades of her art, which radiates joy and challenges traditional artistic boundaries.

The Shogun’s World explores the fascinating characteristics of Japanese maps on loan from the acclaimed MacLean Collection in Chicago, including their display on ceramic plates, multi-directional views, and the integration of European map-making practices in the 18th and 19th centuries.

"The Crow Museum of Asian Art is thrilled to re-illuminate our downtown home, underscoring our enduring commitment to the Dallas Arts District," said Amy Lewis Hofland, Senior Director of the Crow Museum of Asian Art. "This trio of exhibitions highlights our mission to celebrate both historical and contemporary works, while amplifying the critical voices of Texas artists."

SPRING EXHIBITIONS AT THE DALLAS ARTS DISTRICT MUSEUM:

CECILIA CHIANG: DON’T TELL ME WHAT TO DO
April 5, 2025-March 9, 2026

Possessing a whimsical and fluid artistic style that celebrates color, Cecilia Chu Chiang is a self-taught artist who operates beyond the confines of the traditional artistic canon. She expresses her spontaneity and creativity across a broad spectrum of media, including Chinese ink watercolors, oils, acrylics, ceramics, printmaking, textiles and collage. Born in 1934, her multi-disciplinary artwork is free from any constraints, open and brimming with personality, much like the artist herself. The artist’s practice spans an impressive 40 years, during which she has maintained a near-daily painting practice and art creation. In this exhibition, there is an abundance of art making and an abundance of joy.

“Inspiration appears unintentionally and fleetingly, so it must be seized in an instant,” says Chiang. “It is never within a fixed framework. I have no fixed mentors or restricted themes in my paintings. Flowers, insects, birds, fish, beasts, people, cartoons – anything can be my subject. My interests are broad and varied, not seeking beauty but rather the joy and beauty in life!”

Cecilia Chu Chiang was born in Beijing, China. In 1947, at the age of 12, she and her family of eight and five extended family members left mainland China and relocated to Taiwan. While residing in Taiwan for 35 years, she married the painter and calligrapher I-Han Chiang (1925-2018). In 1971, she migrated to the U.S. In 1984, at age 50, her artistic journey took a turn when her late husband encouraged her to create a piece for their family art exhibitions. Chiang has continued to produce nearly daily art pieces since that time.

ANILA QUAYYUM AGHA: LET ONE BIRD SING
April 5-Sept. 28, 2025

“Give some tree the gift of green again. Let one bird sing.” Echoing the lines of Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s poem, Ek Din Yun Khizan Aa Gai (When Autumn Came), in this solo exhibition Anila Agha addresses the violence and destruction of natural environments such as plants, trees and entire ecosystems. In Faiz’s poem, the birds are a metaphor for the human condition and for the continual alienation of marginalized communities – their dreams disintegrating; their voices withering in their throats.

Here, injustice perpetuated against the land stands in for the oppression of man. In a similar vein, the centerpiece of this exhibition is a laser-cut steel cube, Rainforest. The piece, which is its own room within a room, portrays a lush, tropical and immersive environment. A rainforest is typically cacophonous with the sound of many animals and birds. With the immediate threat of rainforest deforestation and the loss of avian habitats, birds are in the process of being silenced.

Agha’s work, like Faiz’s poetry, has a multiplicity of meaning. She probes through layered geometric, floral and abstract patterns that are ambiguous and contain many interpretations. Agha’s art is often translated through her relationship with Islamic and Islamicate art. The glowing light of her work can activate a mystical or religious atmosphere. And yet, Agha cannot be reduced to a simple black-and-white reading, as there are literal and metaphorical gradations of grey cast in the shadows of her works.

The last line of Faiz’s poem pleads for a spring renewal – for birds to sing and trees to be green. The poet invokes and commands change. This theme of hope is at the core of Agha’s work. While the environment may be stripped bare and viewers may feel dispirited, Agha evokes a world of enchantment, with moments of intimacy between viewers and tender encounters with light. The artist propels one to make promises for a better future through these communal moments.

Anila Quayyum Agha was born in Lahore, Pakistan, in 1965. She received her BFA from the National College of Arts, Lahore, and an MFA in Fiber Arts from the University of North Texas in 2001. Major awards include the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant (2019), the Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship (2021), and the Joan Mitchell Center Residency in New Orleans, LA (2025). For the 2019 Venice Biennial, Agha was included in a collateral event, She Persists, with 22 contemporary feminist artists. Agha’s work is in many private and public collections, including the Cincinnati Art Museum in Ohio, Kiran Nader Art Museum in Delhi, Kunsthaus Zurich in Switzerland, and the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA.

THE SHOGUN’S WORLD: JAPANESE MAPS FROM THE MACLEAN COLLECTION
April 5-Oct. 5, 2025

Several characteristics are unique to historical Japanese maps. First, only Japan created maps on ceramic plates. Second, Japan was willing to fully integrate European map-making techniques. These might include a grid of longitude and latitude, a compass rose – the circle or decorative device printed on a map showing the points of the compass, copperplate printing, or information taken directly from European maps or European-style land surveys. A third feature is the maps’ orientation. Some Japanese maps are labeled to the outer edge in all directions. In other words, they are created to be viewed from any side. No view is prioritized, which is likely a direct result of historically viewing maps on the floor. This worm’s-eye perspective means the viewer is meant to enter the map as if one is standing in the center and looking outwards in every direction.