“DC Art Now” Exhibition

DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities, I St Gallery, 200 I Street, SE, Washington DC; metro: Waterfront

Hours: Monday -Friday, 9 am to 5:30 pm, from September 20-December 13, 2025

This is an exciting exhibition of art by DC area artists being considered for the Washington DC Art Bank public art collection to be displayed in DC government buildings.  There are dozens of artists in the show, selected by a panel of 18 judges. We are thrilled to see the collaborative “Capitol Kantha” on display. It is made from a sari that was part of the 2019 WRAPture installation, then later worn by a Bangladeshi woman farmer on Barobaishdia Island, and then cut, layered in three, and embroidered, painted and printed by women of the island and Monica Jahan Bose. The original sari also has woodblock by people of DC. Saris are never discarded. When worn thin or torn, they are cut, layered in three, and embroidered into blankets, swaddles, shawls, and wall hangings called kanthas.

Storytelling with Saris workshops will take place in February 2025 in Bangladesh.  The workshops will include sari printing, letter writing to the government, new song creation, and performance.

Stay tuned for the Paglees show in North Carolina!   Link to Review of debut show in Chicago.

Location:  McColl Center, 721 N Tryon St, Charlotte, NC 28202

Opening Reception:  May 22, 2025

Public lecture by Prof. Melia Belli-Bose:  June 12, 2025

The Paglees: Between Reason and Madness

The Paglees is a feminist collective of artists of South Asian origin living across the United States. Paglee or pagli means crazy woman in a number of South Asian languages.

In their debut exhibition, The Paglees investigate – with fierceness, beauty, and wit – the impact on women of generations of patriarchy, religion, white supremacy, colonialism, violence, capitalism, and environmental plunder.

The title of the exhibition derives from Rosa Parks’ words: “There is just so much hurt, disappointment and oppression one can take. The bubble of life grows larger. The line between reason and madness grows thinner.” (Rosa Parks: Writings, Notes and Statements,1956-58).

Featuring mixed-media works on paper, fabric, and canvas, sculpture, performance, photography, installation, and moving image, The Paglees: Between Reason and Madness, questions and reframes the labeling of non-conforming women as crazy and the marginalization of immigrant women of color. This collective exhibition presents new decolonial narratives that center the reason and wisdom of brown women of the Global South and diaspora, and provide pathways to a creative feminist future. The Paglees believe in working in collaboration with other marginalized communities to build bridges and demand social, environmental, and legal justice for all.

The seven Paglees are South Asian American artists living and working across North America:  Shelly Bahl (New York City and Toronto, Canada), Monica Jahan Bose (Washington, DC), Fawzia Khan (Minneapolis, Minnesota), Indrani Nayar-Gall (Charlotte, North Carolina), Renluka Maharaj (Denver, Colorado), Nirmal Raja (Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Boston, Massachusetts), and Pallavi Sharma (San Ramos, California).  We are diasporic South Asians with roots in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Trinidad & Tobago.