ALIBABA AWRANG, Master Calligraphic Artist
Website: https://www.alibabaawrang.com
Email: alibabaawrang@gmail.com
Instagram: Ali Baba Awrang
Facebook/YouTube: Alibaba Awrang
BACKGROUND
Born in Ghazni Province, Afghanistan, 1972.
Owned and managed own art studio and gallery (Negar Khana Rang) in Ghazni and Kabul, Afghanistan, 2010-2021.
Taught painting and calligraphy in own institute in Kabul, on television and online. (See YouTube)
Chairman, Afghanistan Calligraphy Association, Member of the Supreme Executive Council of the Association, 2005-2006.
Head of Department of Calligraphy and Miniature Painting, Turquois Mountain Institute, Kabul, Afghanistan, 2017-2022.
https://www.turquoisemountain.org
Recognized by the President of Afghanistan as a leading Afghan calligrapher, 2017.
Designed for television, posters, book covers, etc.
Evacuated by U.S. Department of State, 2021, and resettled in Litchfield, CT, 2022.
EDUCATION
Iranian Calligraphy Association: Bachelor of Calligraphy, Shiraz, Iran (1992), Master of Calligraphy, Tehran, Iran, 2019.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2025 Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT: Divide Geometry: Islamic Art 2025 Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT, Commissioned installation of calligraphy on four walls of entry gallery 2025 836M Gallery, San Francisco, CA, Didar
2024 Sydney, Biennale, Sydney, Australia
2023 Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, CT, Uprooted: from Afghanistan to Connecticut
2022 Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, Qatar, 3-Panel Permanent Installation in Reception Gallery
2022 From Kabul to Connecticut, The Judy Black Memorial Park, Litchfield County, CT, USA
2019 Intangible Art and Culture Festival, National Museum, Islamabad, Pakistan
2019-20 made in Afghanistan: Triangle of Art and Knowledge, Etihad Museum, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
2018 “Kelk Khyal”, Exhibitions at Galleries in Kabul, Mazar Sharif, Bamyan , Heart and Ghazni
2017 Farhangsaray Niavaran Palace Complex, Tehran, Iran (Nimroz)
2016 Chowgandi Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan
2012 Calligraphy Exhibit, Brisbane, Australia (University of Queensland)
2012 Calligraphy Exhibit, RMIT Gallery, University of Melbourne, Australia (Permanent Collection)
2011-2013 Traveling Calligraphy celebration, sponsored by Economic Cooperation
Organization: Dushanbe (Tajikistan), Kabul, Lahore, Tehran
2010 Calligraphy Exhibition, Lismore Gallery, Sydney, Australia
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, Qatar
The World Bank, Washington, DC, USA
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT, USA
RMIT Museum and Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
Collections of Afghanistan Presidents Hamid Karzay and Ashraf Ghani
PUBLICATIONS
produced in collaboration with the Agha Khan Foundation, CCA institute and the Swiss Corporation
2015, Kelke Khyal, Calligraphy of Alibaba Awrang; 2014, Boy Bahar, Contemporary Calligraphy
of Afghanistan, 2014; and Tamashay Jan, Contemporary Calligraphers of Afghanistan, 2012.