ABOUT EXHIBITION : Liquid Light
Shahzia Sikander’s exhibition, Liquid Light, draws inspiration from the visual splendor of Venice, Italy, where a survey exhibition of her work, titled Collective Behavior, is being presented by the Cleveland Museum of Art and Cincinnati Art Museum as part of the 60th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia. Conceiving Venice as a liminal space— the space between human and water, citizen and migrant, real and mythic, powers and the powerless—establishes a mutualism between Sikander’s work and Venice’s rich history. This threshold is fecund in Sikander’s practice, in its embrace of absence and the unknown, thereby defying the expected both conceptually and materially.

ABOUT ARTISTS : Shahzia Sikander
Born in Lahore, Pakistan, Shahzia Sikander took up the traditional practice of miniature painting during Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq’s military regime, at a time when the medium was deeply unpopular among young artists. Sikander earned a B.F.A. in 1991 from the National College of Arts (NCA) in Lahore, where she received rigorous training from master miniaturist Bashir Ahmad, becoming his first student and artist from the miniature painting department to challenge the medium’s technical and aesthetic framework. Sikander’s breakthrough work, The Scroll, 1989–90, received national critical acclaim in Pakistan, winning the prestigious Shakir Ali Award, the NCA’s highest merit award, and the Haji Sharif award for excellence in miniature painting. Sikander started teaching miniature painting at NCA in 1992, alongside Bashir Ahmad. Her work launched what is now globally called neo-miniature into the forefront of NCA’s program in the early 90s, encouraging students on the sidelines weary about prejudices around craft-based work to engage miniature painting with experimentation. In the late 90s to early 2000s Sikander's work in the international arena brought recognition to this medium within contemporary art practices across the world.