Virtual | Artist Talk with Shahzia Sikander

12pm ET | 11am CT | 9am PT

ArtTable’s Artist Talk series is made possible by the Pollock Krasner Foundation. Originally formatted as in-person Artist Breakfasts, ArtTable has moved all programming into the virtual realm during the pandemic. Please join us for a virtual Artist Talk with Shahzia Sikander.

Shahzia will talk about individual works she created from 1988 to 2003, elaborating on the evolution of her unique visual lexicon as she negotiated a language between the pictorial traditions of Central and South Asia and contemporary practices, through the lens of her experience from Pakistan to the US as an immigrant pre and post 9/11 and how that period’s shifting socio-political culture shaped her broader practice.

Admission

• Non-Members – $10
• ArtTable Members – $5
• ArtTable Circle Members – Free
• Members may bring an additional guest for $5

How to take part:

1. Click here to Register for this program.
2. Following registration you will receive call-in information in the form of a ZOOM link.
3. Before joining a Zoom meeting on a computer or mobile device, you can download the Zoom app from the Download Center and select the “Zoom Client for Meetings” option. Alternatively, you will be prompted to download and install Zoom when you click a join link.
4. For further instruction on how to use Zoom, see here.

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Accessibility: Please note that this program will offer live closed captioning. If you require additional accommodations, please email programs@arttable.org.

About Shahzia Sikander

Pioneering Pakistani-American artist Shahzia Sikander is one of the most influential artists working today. Sikander is widely celebrated for expanding and subverting pre-modern and classical Central and South-Asian miniature painting traditions and launching the form known today as neo-miniature. By bringing traditional and historical practice into dialogue with contemporary international art practices, Sikander’s multivalent and investigative work examines colonial archives to readdress orientalist narratives in western art history. Interrogating ideas of language, trade, empire, and migration through imperial and feminist perspectives Sikander’s paintings, video animations, mosaics and sculpture explore gender roles and sexuality, cultural identity, racial narratives, and colonial and postcolonial histories.

Sikander earned a B.F.A. in 1991 from the National College of Arts in Lahore, Pakistan. Her seminal thesis work, The Scroll (1989–1990) which initiated the start of the neo-miniature movement, garnered awards, exhibitions and press, as well as led to increased enrollment in the NCA’s miniature painting department. Subsequently, Sikander was appointed as a lecturer in miniature painting at the school. The artist then moved to the United States to pursue an M.F.A. at the Rhode Island School of Design from 1993 to 1995; from 1995 to 1997, she participated in the Glassell School of Art’s CORE Program at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. A recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship (2006) and the State Department Medal of Arts (2012), Sikander’s innovative work has been exhibited and collected internationally.

Shahzia Sikander will be the subject of a traveling exhibition titled Shahzia Sikander: Extraordinary Realities. The exhibition will open at The Morgan Library in New York in June 2021, followed by the RISD Museum in Providence, Rhode Island in November 2021, and then the MFA Houston in Texas in Spring 2022. On the occasion of these exhibitions, there will be a major new monograph printed. Extraordinary Realities is an exhaustive examination of Sikander’s work from 1987 to 2003, charting her early development as an artist in Lahore and the United States, and foregrounding her critical role in bringing miniature painting into dialogue with contemporary art. Edited by Jan Howard and Sadia Abbas, with contributions by Gayatri Gopinath, Faisal Devji, Kishwar Rizvi, Sadia Abbas, Jan Howard, Vasif Kortun, Dennis Congdon, Bashir Ahmed, Rick Lowe, and Julie Mehretu.

This program is generously supported by the Pollock-Krasner Foundation. The Pollock-Krasner Foundation has been a leader in providing grants enabling emerging and established artists to focus on their work. Funding helps artists to create new work, acquire art supplies, rent studio space, and prepare exhibitions. The Foundation also provides grants to organizations that directly engage with artists, such as artist residency programs. Please visit www.pkf.org for more information.

Thank you to Julia P. Herzberg, Ph.D., member of ArtTable’s New York Chapter Programming Committee, for organizing this program.

Images:

1. “Cholee Kay Peechay Kiya? Chunree Kay Neechay Kiya? (What Is under the Blouse? What Is under the Dress?)”, 1997; Vegetable Color, dry pigment, watercolor and tea on wasli paper; Marieluise Hessel Collection, Hessel Museum of Art, Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York
2. “Hood’s Red Rider No. 2”, 1997; Vegetable Color, dry pigment, watercolor, gold and tea on wasli paper; Collection of Susan and Lew Manilow