From Kabul to Litchfield Hills

The Art of Alibaba Awrang

Four years ago, Arman and Arezo Awrang arrived in Litchfield County from Afghanistan unable to speak a word of English. Later this month, the siblings will begin college at the University of Connecticut at Storrs. Their remarkable journey is at the heart of From Kabul to Litchfield Hills, a special exhibition of contemporary abstract paintings by their father, internationally recognized Afghan artist Alibaba Awrang.

The exhibition is a collaboration between the Washington Art Association & Gallery and the Washington Refugee Resettlement Project, and is co-curated by WAA Executive Director Nathaniel Cardonsky and Maria Mostajo of the Washington Refugee Resettlement Project.

The exhibition opens Saturday, August 22, from 3:00-5:00 p.m. at the Washington Art Association’s Sunshine Center, 11 Green Hill Road, Washington Depot, and continues through September 19. The exhibition is both a celebration and an opportunity. While financial aid, scholarships, and the family’s own contributions cover much of Arman and Arezo’s college expenses, a remaining gap persists. Proceeds from the sale of Awrang’s paintings will help support the siblings as they begin this next chapter.

Awrang’s own story is one of extraordinary resilience. Born in Ghazni Province, Afghanistan, in 1972, he was trained in the ancient tradition of Persian calligraphy, earning Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees through the Iranian Calligraphy Association in Shiraz and Tehran. He later taught painting and chaired the Calligraphy and Miniature Painting Department at Kabul’s Turquoise Mountain Institute.

In 2021, at the height of his career, Awrang and his family were evacuated from Afghanistan by the U.S. Department of State following the Taliban takeover. They resettled in Connecticut in 2022. Within months, Awrang received a remarkable commission from the I.M. Pei-designed Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar. Working on the floor of his new bedroom, he created a monumental 12-by-20-foot triptych that is now permanently installed in the museum’s entry gallery.

Since coming to the United States, Awrang’s work has entered the collection of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art and has been exhibited at the Wadsworth, the Mattatuck Museum, 836M Gallery in San Francisco, and the 2024 Sydney Biennale. His work is also held by the RMIT Museum and Gallery in Melbourne. He has received grants from Mass MoCA and the Connecticut Office of the Arts and participated in the Studios at MASS MoCA Artist-in-Residence program.

Although Awrang’s paintings are abstract, their roots lie in Persian calligraphy particularly the graceful Nastaliq script, known as the “bride” of calligraphy. The letters are not meant to be read. Instead, they become gesture, rhythm, color, and form. “My art is meant to offer the viewer an intimate connection with color, form, balance and harmony,” Awrang says. “It invites meditation and reflection.”

Working intuitively, Awrang builds his paintings through layers of Japanese ink, acrylic, gold and silver leaf, using traditional bamboo pens and brushes on paper, canvas, and wood. He begins with a letter, form, or pattern without knowing where it will lead. “I often get lost in the layers and am surprised by the final work,” he says. That sense of discovery is what makes the work so compelling: ancient tradition becomes contemporary abstraction, and a visual language born thousands of miles away finds new expression in the Litchfield Hills.

From Kabul to Litchfield Hills is ultimately about more than art. It is about resilience, community, and the possibilities that emerge when people are given the opportunity to begin again.

The Washington Art Association and the Washington Refugee Resettlement Project invite the community to join Alibaba Awrang, his family, and the curators for the opening reception on Saturday, August 22, from 3:00-5:00 p.m. at the Sunshine Center, 11 Green Hill Road, Washington Depot. The exhibition will remain on view through September 19. From Kabul to Litchfield Hills
August 22-September 19, 2026
Opening Reception: August 22, 3:00-5:00 p.m.
Sunshine Center, 11 Green Hill Road, Washington Depot View and Purchase Works