Shahzia Sikander

Shahzia Sikander (Urdu: شازیه سکندر; born 1969) is an artist from Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. Sikander is a Pakistani American artist, now living in New York City, who specializes in Mughal miniature painting and Persian miniature painting. She has also created murals, installations, mixed-media works and performance art. She is a 2006 recipient of the MacArthur Fellows Program "genius grant". She earned a BFA in 1992 at the National College of Arts in Lahore, Pakistan; and an MFA in 1995 at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, Rhode Island.

She has had solo exhibitions at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (1999/2000) and at the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago (1998). Her work has been shown in group exhibitions at the Whitney Museum (1999/2000 and 1999), at the Third Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Brisbane, Australia (1999), and at the Ludwig Museum, Cologne, Germany (1999).

Sikander has been schooled in the miniature painting tradition of Pakistan, and combines the historic iconography and technique with her own aesthetics resulting in a hybrid of traditional and contemporary styles. The imagery in her work references the tensions that exist in Islam, Hinduism and Christianity as well as her personal history, politics, and sexuality. Religion is a significant element in her art as well as her personal life, as she is a practicing Muslim. Sikander explores in particular, the role of Muslim women and challenges the view Westerners have of associating Islam only with terrorism and oppression of women.

Contents

Work

A Muslim from Pakistan working and living in America, Sikander has explored stereotypes of Eastern and Pakistani women, and issues relating to the Hindu and Muslim divide in Pakistan and India. She has transformed a traditional art form – the highly precise and often impersonal genre of miniature painting – into a contemporary art context, and she frequently mixes imagery from both Hindu and Muslim mythology and iconography (like the Muslim veil and the Hindu multi-armed goddess), paralleling the complicated and interwoven nature of Indian and Pakistani history and culture.

Sikander has also experimented with wearing a veil in public (which she did not do before moving to the United States), and has characterized this as a form of performance.

Studies

Shahzia Sikander did her undergraduate studies at National College of Arts in Lahore and received her Master of Fine Arts in 1995 from the Rhode Island School of Design.

Solo exhibitions

Shahzia Shikander has participated in numerous exhibitions, and continues to do so.

Group exhibitions

Awards and Fellowships

External links