Shahzia Sikander comes from Pakistan, where she was
trained in Persian miniature painting. As in most Asian art,
repetition rather than innovation is encouraged in this
form, which Sikander accomplished with tiny brushes and
luminous paint. Sikander's early works are characterized
by a microscopic precision of modeling and detail, while
her subjects are infused with subtle feminist vitality.

After moving to the U.S. to attend graduate school, she
began to experiment with a much looser, more improv-
isational technique, which was eventually combined with
the traditional style to produce paintings that express
the collision and synthesis of cultures. Her current paint-
ings include iconic images culled from multiple sources,
including Mexican and African-American as well as the
Persian, Pakistani Muslim, and Indian Hindu traditions.
While she has personal relationships to each of these
cultures so that her symbols are never arbitrary, the
juxtaposition, overlapping, and entanglement of forms
convey a sense of edgy fragility. Uniting these multifar-
ious signs full of meaning in one culture, decorative to
another, are the improvised stains and meandering
marks of the artist, the omnipotent hand of the individ-
ual making her way through the chaos of cultures.

Frances Colpitt
Core Artist in Residency Program
Glassell School of Art, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston