Daily Times

Pakistani-American contemporary artist Shahzia Sikander’s “Portrait of the Artist”, recently acquired by the National Portrait Gallery, will be displayed in their Recent Acquisitions exhibition from November 16, 2018 – November 3, 2019

The exhibition will feature more than 75 works by artists such as Josef Albers, Patricia Cronin, Imogen Cunningham, Elaine de Kooning, Edward Hopper, Joan Jonas, Jacob Lawrence, Alice Neel, Louise Nevelson, Diego Rivera, Lucas Samaras, Fritz Scholder, Roger Shimomura, Shahzia Sikander and Martin Wong. “Eye to I: Self-Portraits from 1900 to Today” is curated by Brandon Brame Fortune, chief curator, National Portrait Gallery. This exhibition concludes the Portrait Gallery’s 50th anniversary celebrations, and an expanded, illustrated companion book will be published in spring 2019.

Artist Shahzia Sikander has always focused on borders and boundaries and how she could explore those concepts through art. “Drawing is a fundamental element of my process—a basic tool for exploration,” Sikander once said. “I construct most of my work, including patterns of thinking, via drawing.” While studying at the National College of Arts in Lahore, Sikander specialised in Persian and Mughal miniature painting. Her signature work, 1992’s The Scroll, was created while Sikander was still a student at the National College of Art. The piece was 13 inches high and five feet long. The interconnected illustrations that made up “The Scroll” were considered a revelation in the 90’s because they depicted the daily life of a modern Pakistani woman. In addition to its subject matter, “The Scroll” gained widespread attention from critics because it utilised miniature painting at a time when the medium was in decline.

Sikander’s profile was raised further among pop culture fans when her portrait of activist and Nobel Prize winner Malala Yousafzai was shown on David Letterman’s Netflix talk show “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction”

“Shahzia took it to a new level,” historian Ayesha Jalal told NPR in 2016. “I mean, it was her thesis work that was sensational. Everybody talked about her work.” Over the years, Sikander has incorporated several other mediums into her work including drawing, painting, video and printmaking. After earning her MFA at the Rhode Island School of Design, Sikander moved to New York. She told NPR that the city was where she felt she truly found an artistic home in the United States. “This is the first place that I’d been in my three or four years in the US [where] I wasn’t being seen through an ethnic lens,” she said. “I felt the same kind of confidence that I had when my work got recognised in Pakistan.” In recent months, Sikander’s work has been gaining a larger audience among those outside of the art world. The acclaimed artist made headlines last year when she became the first Pakistan-born artist to have her work acquired by the Smithsonian’s National Gallery of Art. The work, a self-portrait, will be part of the gallery’s “Eye to I: Self-Portraits from 1900 to Today” exhibition, which is made up of portraits from the museum’s considerable collections. This exhibition will explore how American artists have chosen to portray themselves since the beginning of the last century. As people are confronted each day with “selfies” via social media and as they continue to examine the fluidity of contemporary identity, this is an opportune time to reassess the significance of self-portraiture in relation to the country’s history and culture. Sikander’s profile was raised further among pop culture fans when her portrait of activist and Nobel Prize winner Malala Yousafzai was shown on David Letterman’s Netflix talk show “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction…” in May. In addition to painting Malala, Sikander was also commissioned to paint the talk show host.The artist described the experience of painting Malala as a powerful one. “Malala represent tremendous spirit and courage. She is synonymous to children’s education and the its dire situation for so many across the world,” Sikander said shortly before the episode first aired. “She carries her purpose with humility, dignity and maturity which is empowering and inspiring.”

Published in Daily Times, September 24^th 2018.