Art under Fire in Afghanistan

The first ever survey of Afghan contemporary art—across mediums, genres and regimes

For 40 years, life in Afghanistan has been shaped by wars, the destruction of heritage, terrorist attacks and migrations. Today, artists in this country—either self-taught, having grown up under a Taliban regime that banned images, or trained formally in exile—have no heritage to negotiate and no rules to break: anything seems possible. Many of the works included here directly confront the country's traumas—such as Latif Eshraq’s Farkhunda, which depicts the mob lynching of Farkhunda Malikzada, who was falsely accused of burning a Quran.
This innovative survey brings together photography, calligraphy, drawing, video, painting and installations by artists such as Kaveh Ayreek, Abdul Wahab Mohmand, Latif Eshraq, Asar Laiq, Kubra Khademi, M. Mahdi Hamed Hassanzada, Farzana Wahidy and Zolaykha Sherzad, among others.