Ocula Report 4th Kochi-Muziris Biennale: Possibilities for a Non-Alienated Life 15 Feb 2019 : Natalie King for Ocula 'Poems are like sentences that have taken their clothes off.' Marlene Dumas' poetic and sensual refrain accompanies her figurative watercolours on view in Possibilities for a Non-Alienated Life, the fourth edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB) in the southern state of Kerala, India (12 December 2018–29 March 2019).Dumas' new series...
Ocula Conversation Ellen Altfest The paintings of Ellen Altfest are ethereal in their detail. Fields of minutiae come together as pulsating images; small brushstrokes of oil paint accumulate over a series of months to single out seemingly innocuous subjects, such as a hand resting atop patterned fabric (The Hand, 2011) or a deep green cactus reaching upwards from beneath a bed of...
Ocula Report Colomboscope 2019: Cross Currents and Dissonance 8 Feb 2019 : Nada Raza for Ocula On the rooftop of the former Rio Hotel complex in Colombo, it was hard to ignore the high-rise buildings, still under construction, blocking all but a sliver of what used to be an open view over Slave Island, once an island on Beira Lake that housed slaves in the 19th century, and now a downtown suburb. The hotel was set alight during the...
Shahzia Sikander is a Pakistani national, born in Lahore. Working in drawing, painting, animation, installation, and video, Sikander’s work employs ideas that are often subversive and polemical in nature. Her process-based work is concerned with examining the forces at stake in contested cultural and political histories.
Shahzia SikanderThe Perennial Gaze, 2018 Glass mosaic mounted on plywood in brass frame
Shahzia SikanderSinging Sphere I, 2014 Ink, gouache, gold leaf on paper
Shahzia SikanderIn-Verse, 2017 Screened oil based paint and hand painted pigment
Shahzia SikanderTitle tbc, 2017 Screened oil based paint and hand painted pigment
Shahzia SikanderPathology of Suspension #8, 2005 Ink and gouache on prepared paper
Shahzia SikanderHere Fido, Here Boy, 2009 Ink, gouache and graphite on prepared paper
Ocula Conversation Shahzia Sikander Artist, Pakistan and New York From being the first in a pioneering group of artists who breathed new life into the ossified tradition of Mughal-era miniature painting, Shahzia Sikander has left a trail in gouache across genres and cultures, gathering an astonishing number of accolades along the way. Still smiling from what looked to be an exhilarating exhibit of her...
Related Press SHAHZIA SIKANDER AT PRINCETON UNIVERSITY Asian Art Newspaper : 1 May 2017 Pakistani artist Shahzia Sikander (b 1969) has created and installed two site-specific installations commissioned by Princeton University's funding for campus art by living artists. Quintuplet Effect, a painting on glass, and Ecstasy as Sublime, Heart as Vector, a glass, ceramic, and marble mosaic, each continue Sikander's exploration of miniature...
Related Press 'I'm not a journalist': Pakistani neo-miniaturist Imran Qureishi Art Radar Journal : 30 January 2017 Imran Qureshi was born in 1972 and grew up in Hyderabad, Sindh Province before settling in Lahore, where he is still based. Soft-spoken, thoughtful and deeply engaged with the sociopolitical context of his country, Qureshi talks to Roxanne Bagheshirin Lærkesen in a revealing video for the Louisiana Channel, focusing on his exhibition Idea of...
Related Press In conversation with Shahzia Sikander Brooklyn Rail : 2 November 2016 Since moving to the U.S. from Pakistan in the mid-’90s, Shahzia Sikander has pushed through boundaries corroded by decades of multiculturalist rhetoric with an artistic practice that reimagines the connections between Eastern experiences and Western perspectives. Sikander is best known for her early mastery of Indo-Persian miniaturist...
Related Press Frieze Art Fair: nostalgia and discovery Aesthetica : 21 October 2016 With Frieze director Victoria Siddall describing this year’s fair as having a 'sense of discovery', the plethora of art to be found at Frieze London 2016 offered endless opportunities of exploration. The fair experience surpassed the walls of gallery booths, with artistic endeavours revealed across the curated programme of talks and...
