ABOUT THE ARTIST

Afghan artist Alibaba Awrang is an established artist in the Eastern world, with exhibitions and works in private collections in Kabul, Tehran, Bahrain, Dubai, Istanbul, Islam Abad, and Melbourne.  In 2021, at the height of his career, he and his family were evacuated from Afghanistan by the U.S. Department of State, when the Taliban took control of his country. In 2022 he resettled in Connecticut.

Soon after arriving, he was commissioned by the I.M. Pei-designed Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar, one of the world’s premier museums of Islamic art. He painted the 12x20 foot triptych - which is now installed permanently in the entry gallery - on the floor of his new bedroom.

Since his arrival in the U.S., his paintings have been acquired by the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum in Hartford, CT, and by private collectors.  His work has been featured in the 2025 exhibitions at the Wadsworth Atheneum, at the 836M Gallery in San Francisco, in the 2024 Sydney Biennale, and in a 2023 show at the Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury, CT.  His work is also in the collection of the RMIT Museum and Gallery in Melbourne.  In 2024, he was awarded an Assets for Artists grant by Mass MoCA in North Adams, MA and an Artist Fellowship grant by the Connecticut Office of the Arts.

Awrang was born in Ghazni Province, Afghanistan, in 1972.  He received his Bachelor and his Master of Calligraphy degrees at the Iranian Calligraphy Association in Shiraz and Tehran, respectively.  He taught painting and chaired the Calligraphy and Miniature Painting Department at the Turquoise Mountain Institute (founded by The Prince of Wales, now King Charles III) in Kabul, Afghanistan.  His work has been published in several books, including Kelke Khyal (Calligraphy of Alibaba Awrang), 2015.