‘Geometry of Light’ @ Seattle Asian Art Museum

Step inside “Geometry of Light” and you step inside the work of Anila Quayyum Agha — literally. Suspended from the ceiling, her laser-cut steel cubes glow from within, scattering shadows across every wall, ceiling and visitor who wanders into their orbit. With each shift of light and body, the patterns multiply — sometimes crisp as rubber stamps, sometimes ghostlike and elusive.

At the center of the Seattle Asian Art Museum’s galleries hangs “A Beautiful Despair (Blue),” an aqua-hued cube that projects lacey silhouettes over a rose-colored wall, recalling flocked wallpaper and dreamlike interiors. Nearby, “This Is Not a Refuge!” takes the form of a white, house-like cube — part birdhouse, part sanctuary denied. Both pieces invert the tradition of art on walls: Here, it is the walls themselves (and you) that become the canvas.

Agha’s vision extends beyond these glowing sculptures. Framed paper works, stitched with delicate pearl and gold beading and cut with knife-edge precision, encircle the main gallery. At once fragile and fierce, they recall embroidery as much as scars, reminding us that a needle can be both tool and weapon.

Born in Lahore and now based in Indianapolis, Agha transforms the architectural motifs of her childhood into immersive environments that invite reflection on belonging, exclusion and beauty. Shadows, after all, are not absence but presence — light made visible by what it touches. In “Geometry of Light,” you’ll find yourself illuminated, inscribed and — if only for a moment — woven into the pattern.