“SURVIVING SHADOWS”, exhibition at apexart NYC | JAN 16 to MAR 14
“If an entire nation’s artistic voice is compelled to keep silent, what will happen? A voice doesn’t just vanish away though, it changes and sings below the surface and finds new kinds of codes.”
It’s with these words that Afghan artist Yama Rahimi presents “Surviving Shadows – Afghan Art in the Face of Suppression” opening this week on January 16th 2026 at apexart in NYC.
This exhibition, curated by Yama, presents images of pieces that were destroyed, artworks that remain in Afghanistan, art smuggled out of the country, and creations of Afghan artists in exile. One of the 2024 ArtsLink Fellows who did their residencies in the US (At Magnum Foundation for him), Yama is a contemporary artist and activist from Afghanistan. His work is informed by a deep involvement in migrant and women’s rights issues and encompasses video, conceptual photography, and experimental short film. Yama has been living in Germany since 2015.
In the wake of the Taliban’s return to power on August 15, 2021, Afghanistan’s artists found themselves thrust into a suffocating darkness. Overnight, the spaces where creativity once flourished were shuttered, replaced by a regime of censorship that views artistic expression as a threat. Music fell silent, performances ceased, and cultural heritage sites faced destruction. For those who dared to create, art became both salvation and peril: a means of liberation that could cost them everything.
This exhibition bears witness to an artistic community torn apart yet unbroken. It tells the story of artists forced to make impossible choices: some fled to Germany, France, and the United States, clutching fragments of their work; others remain in Afghanistan, creating in secret despite the mortal danger. Many destroyed their own pieces to protect their families, while countless works were lost to looting, deliberate destruction, or abandoned in desperate flight. Yet through it all, Afghan art survives, hidden in safe houses, smuggled across borders, preserved in photographs, or reimagined in exile.
Yama’s curation presents a haunting archive of resistance. Here are images of destroyed masterpieces, works that remain concealed within Afghanistan’s borders, art carried in suitcase journeys to freedom, and new creations born in displacement. Through paintings, photographs, videos, text, and personal testimonies gathered during harrowing evacuations, the exhibition documents not just oppression, but the extraordinary resilience of those who refuse to be silenced. It is a living archive that ensures Afghan artists’ voices will endure, honoring both those who stayed and those who left, while preserving their creative struggle for future generations to understand the contemporary Afghan artistic landscape.
“Surviving Shadows – Afghan Art in the Face of Suppression”
Opening Friday, January 16, 6pm – 8pm
apexart: 291 Church St. New York, NY 10013
On view until March 14, 2026
With:
Angela Gulistani
Ayatollah Ahmadi
Jahan Ara Rafi
Jeanno Gaussi
Maryam Gholam Ali
Fatimah Hossaini
Farshad Akbari
Waisuddin Mohammadi
10 Anonymous Afghanistan based artists
Events in relation to the exhibition
Jan 16th, 3pm EST: Online Curatorial Tour
Lead by Yama Rahimi, a live online event presenting and discussing the exhibition.
More info here.
Feb 10th, 1pm EST: Inside, Outside, and In Between: Afghan Artists on Art Under Suppression
Discussion: Artists from Afghanistan and the diaspora speak on creativity and survival under repression.
More info here.
Mar 5th, 7pm: Shot the Voice of Freedom
Screening and discussion of Shot the Voice of Freedom, a documentary following two Afghan sisters who resist the Taliban’s harsh restrictions on their rights and futures.
More info here.
Events