We are pleased to present an exhibition exploring the many ways in which artists deploy their creative skills to shape perceptions, challenge norms and foster critical thinking.
Soft Power brings together paintings, sculptures and photography from a global group of artists who harness art’s transformative power to amplify marginalized voices, particularly women and those from underrepresented cultures.
A concept popularized in the late 1980s by international relations scholar Joseph Nye, “soft power” is the ability to wield influence through persuasion rather than coercion or force. Soft power forges connection through the strategic use of storytelling over rhetoric. In the political sphere, a nation’s soft power assets are built on cultural and educational exchanges, diplomacy and the promotion of ideals and values.
In the context of art, soft power lies in the capacity to move viewers through emotion, aesthetic beauty, evocative imagery and compelling narrative. When associated with the feminine, soft power can be a potent tool of influence to challenge traditional ideas surrounding gender and power by illuminating the strength and complexity of feminine perspectives and experiences.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
The vivid hues and intricate patterns in Anila Quayyum Agha’s (b. 1965, Pakistan) resin paintings are redolent of the immersive large-scale light installations she’s known for, which transform the surrounding environment into inclusive spaces, in contrast to the similarly ornamented public spaces Agha was excluded from as a female growing up in Lahore. Agha's work has been the subject of more than a dozen museum shows over the past five years. Her upcoming exhibition The Geometry of Light opens at the Seattle Asian Art Museum August 27.
Lalla Essaydi (b. 1956, Morocco), whose work is on view in Tattoo. History of the Mediterranean (Tatouage. Histoire de la Méditerranée) at La Vieille Charité in Marseille, France, through September 28, is noted for her evocative color photographs in which subtly subversive narratives are used to challenge the traditional gendered hierarchies that shaped her life as a young girl in Morocco. Essaydi is represented in the collections of Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore; Louvre, Paris; The British Museum, London; Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington, DC; and Los Angeles County Museum of Art, among others.
Golnaz Fathi (b. 1972, Tehran) is one of the few women in Iran to excel at traditional calligraphy. After becoming one of the country’s most skilled practitioners, Fathi chose to pursue a career as a contemporary artist, developing a distinctive visual language derived from her reinterpretations of traditional Persian calligraphy. It is gestural, abstract and layered with meaning. Fathi’s work is in the Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and The British Museum, among others.
Operating in a post-colonial Southeast Asian context, Jane Lee (b. 1963, Singapore) re-examines the significance of Western painting practices while asserting her own culture. Lee creates lush, abstract paintings by laboriously building up multiple layers of paint that coalesce into intricate, dense, sculptural expanses that often drip over edges or explode beyond the picture plane. In 2023, she was commissioned to create a series of interactive installations exploring space, light and reflection for an immersive solo exhibition at the Singapore Art Museum.
Tayeba Begum Lipi (b. 1969, Bangladesh) is critically recognized for her long-running sculpture series in which she creates glittering domistic objects made from fabricated razor blades—a sharp-edged reference to societal contradictions and gendered violence in parts of her culture and the wider world. In 2012, Love Bed, an early work from the series, was included in the acclaimed Guggenheim Museum survey of contemporary Southeast Asian art No Country and is now part of the museum’s permanent collection.
Lê Hiên Minh (b. 1979, Vietnam) creates sculptures and installations exploring themes of history and mysticism and the cultural forces that shape modern life. Her primary medium is traditional handmade Vietnamese dó paper, a culturally significant material that has been at the core of her practice for two decades. Her sculpture Apocalypse Nail (2024), where a rifle from the Vietnam War is studded with elongated fingernails, addresses violence and exploitation of women. Minh has exhibited at the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Japan; Ho Chi Minh City Museum of Fine Arts; and Vietnam National Fine Arts Museum, Hanoi.
A third-generation Chinese immigrant in Myanmar, ceramicist Soe Yu Nwe (b. 1989, Myanmar) creates handwrought sculptures using porcelain, found objects and precious materials. Inspired by female figures in Buddhist mythology, her recent work explores themes of freedom and independence. Nwe participated in the Thailand Biennale (2023) and Jakarta Contemporary Ceramics Biennale (2016) and has exhibited at the ArtScience Museum, Singapore; The British Museum; and Leeum Museum of Art, Seoul.
Pannaphan Yodmanee (b. 1988, Thailand) originally trained in traditional Buddhist temple painting and restoration. Today, she creates layered site-specific installations resembling crumbling facades and architectural ruins. Her recent work, which blends Buddhist motifs with Christian iconography, examines different facets of femininity and the forces, both cultural and historical, that shape the female experience. Yodmanee’s public collections include the Singapore Art Museum; Queensland Art Gallery of Modern Art, Australia; and Yuz Museum Shanghai. In 2024, she had a solo presentation at the Benesse House Museum on Naoshima Island, Japan.
Using a rigorous self-developed technique she calls “plucking,” Neha Vedpathak (b. 1982, Pune, India) creates sensuous, textured constructions by separating the long fibers of handmade Japanese mulberry paper with a pushpin. The Detroit-based artist’s work explores contemporary social themes, from motherhood to cultural identity to concepts relating to transformation and the cyclical nature of life. Her work was recently featured in a show at the Cranbrook Art Museum, Michigan, in Subtleism: Neha Vedpathak with Agnes Martin.