Shahzia Sikander
Born 1969 in Lahore, Pakistan
Lives and works in New York
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2025
Collective Behaviour, Cincinnati Art Museum and Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, USA (forthcoming)
2024
Collective Behaviour, Palazzo Soranzo Van Axel, Venice, Italy
2023
Loss, Longing, Belonging: Shahzia Sikander’s Khorfakkan Series, NYU Abu Dhabi institute, New York, US
Dhaka Art Summit, Dhaka, Bangladesh (forthcoming)
Shahzia Sikander: Havah…to breathe, air, life, Madison Square Park Conservancy, New York, New York, US
2022
Shahzia Sikander: Extraordinary Realities, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, US
Shahzia Sikander: Radiant Dissonance, Sean Kelly, Los Angeles, California, US
2021
Shahzia Sikander: Extraordinary Realities, Morgan Library and Museum, New York; RISD Museum, Providence, Rhode Island, US
Shahzia Sikander: Unbound, Jesus College, Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK
Infinite Woman, Pilar Corrias, London, UK
2020
Weeping Willows, Liquid Tongues, Sean Kelly, New York, US
2019
Disruption as Rapture, Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, North Carolina, US
2017
A Journey Into The Great Unknown, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, California, US
Disruption as Rapture, Aga Khan Museum, Toronto, Canada
Parallax, Honolulu Museum of Art, Honolulu, Hawaii, US
2016
Ecstasy As Sublime, Heart As Vector, MAXXI | Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Roma, Italy
Shahzia Sikander: Apparatus of Power, Chantal Miller Gallery, Asia Society Hong Kong Center, Hong Kong, China
2015
Midnight Moment: Gopi Contagion, Times Square Public Art, New York, US
Parallax, Tufts University Art Gallery, Medford, US
Parallax, Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain
Shahzia Sikander, Tufts University art Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts, US
Shahzia Sikander, Tang Teaching Museum, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York, US
2014
Parallax, Bildmuseet, Umeå, Sweden
Parallax, Linda Pace Foundation, San Antonio, Texas, US
Parallax, Nicolaj Kunsthal, Copenhagen, Denmark
Project Gallery: Shahzia Sikander, Perez Art Museum, Miami, Florida, US
2013
Parallax, Pilar Corrias, London, UK
2012
The Last Post, Linda Pace Foundation, San Antonio, Texas, US
Kogod Courtyard at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC, US
Douglas Library, Institute for Women and Art, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, US
2011
Shahzia Sikander: The exploding company man and other abstractions, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, US
Shahzia Sikander: Sift, Rift, Drip, Shift, Sikkema Jenkins & Co, New York, US
Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, US
2010
Transformations, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Japan
Shahzia Sikander: Prolonged Exposure to Agitation, Valentina Bonomo, Rome, Italy
2009
Authority as Approximation, Para/Site, Hong Kong, China
I am also not my own enemy, Pilar Corrias, London, UK
Shahzia Sikander Selects: Works from the Permanent Collection, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. New York, US
Stalemate. Sikkema Jenkins & Co. New York, US
2008
Intimate Ambivalence, IKON Gallery, Birmingham, UK
Daadgalerie, Berlin, Germany
Interstitial: 24 Faces and the 25th Frame, Daadgalerie, Berlin, Germany
2007
Shahzia Sikander, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia
Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland
2006
Valentina Bonomo Arte Contemporanea, Rome, Italy
Shahzia Sikander, Taipei Biennial, Taiwan
Fabric Workshop & Museum, Philadelphia, US
Shahzia Sikander: New Work, Sikkema Jenkins & Co. New York, US
2005
51 Ways of Looking, Sikkema Jenkins & Co, New York, US
Dissonance to Detour, Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, US
Miami Art Museum, Miami, US
2004
Shahzia Sikander: Nemesis, The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York, US
Shahzia Sikander: Flip Flop, The San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, US
Contemporary Links: Shahzia Sikander, The San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, US
2003
Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, US
Drawing to Drawing, Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco, US
SpiNN, Sikkema Jenkins & Co, New York, US
2002
Middlebury College Museum of Art, Vermont, US
2001
Shahzia Sikander, Asia Society, New York, US
Intimacy, ArtPace, San Antonio, Texas, US
2000
Acts of Balance, Whitney Museum of American Art at Philip Morris, New York, US
1999
Directions: Shahzia Sikander, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC, US
1998
Shahzia Sikander, The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, Chicago, US
Shahzia Sikander: Drawings and Miniatures, The Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, Kansas City, Missouri, US
Murals and Miniatures, Deitch Projects, New York, US
The Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, Kansas City, Missouri, US
1997
A Kind of Slight and Pleasing Dislocation, Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco, US
The Drawing Center, New York, US
Murals and Miniatures, Deitch Projects, New York, US
1996
Knock Knock Who's There? Mithilia, Mithilia Who?, Project Row Houses, Houston, US
Art Celebration 96: Shahzia Sikander, Barbara Davis Gallery, Houston, US
Glassell at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Houston, US
Barbara Davis Gallery, Houston, US
Project Row Houses, Houston, US
1992
Rohtas Gallery, Islamabad, Pakistan
Pakistan Embassy, Washington DC, US
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024
The Infinite Woman, Villa Carmignac, Porquerolles, France
2023
Beyond the Page: South Asian Miniature Painting and Britain, 1600 to Now, MK Gallery, Milton Keynes, UK
Without Apology: Asian American Selves, Memories, Futures, Bowdoin College Museum of Art in Brunswick, US
Entangled Pasts, 1768-now Art, Colonialism and Change, Main Galleries, Burlington House, Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK
Women Defining Women in Contemporary Art of the Middle East and Beyond, LACMA, Los Angeles, US
Dhaka Art Summit, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Let The Sunshine In, Pilar Corrias, London, UK
2022
In the Heart of Another Country: The Diasporic Imagination in the Sharjah Art Foundation Collection, Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Germany
2021
Toward Common Cause: Art, Social Change, and the MacArthur Fellows Program at 40, The Smart Museum of Art, Chicago, Illinois, US
Much Unseen is Also Here: An-My Le and Shahzia Sikander, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, US
2020
Glitch, Tahir Cultural Center, American University, Cairo, Egypt
Into the Open, New Zealand Festival of The Arts, Wellington, New Zealand
Miniature 2.0, Pera Art Musuem, Istanbul, Turkey
Never Done: 100 Years of Women in Politics and Beyond, The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, Saratoga Springs, New York, US
We Do Not Dream Alone, Asia Society Triennial, Asia Society, New York, US
2019
All the Sacred Tombs, Centro de Creación Contemporánea de Andalucía, Córdoba, Spain
Fanoon Center For Printmedia Research: Highlights 2012-2019, Virginia Commonwealth University, School of the Arts, Doha, Qatar
Modest Fashion, Stedelijk Museum, Schiedam, The Netherlands
Transcendent, Burlington City Arts, Burlington, Vermont, US
Women Breaking Boundaries, Cincinati Art Museum, Cincinati, Ohio, US
2018
Recent Acquisitions, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, US
Eye to I: Self-Portraits from 1900 to Today, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, US
Beyond Transnationalism: The Legacy of Post Independent Art from South Asia, Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai, India
Lahore Biennale, Lahore, Pakistan
Long, Winding Journeys: Contemporary Art and the Islamic Tradition, Katonah Art Museum, Katonah, US
2017
Everything we do is music, Drawing Room, London, UK
2016
Women in Print, Pace Prints, New York, US
Performing Time, Leo Xu Projects, Shanghai, China
Drawing Conclusions, RISD Museum, Providence, Rhode Island, US
Mixtape 2016, Pilar Corrias, London, UK
20th Anniversary Exhibition, Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco, California, US
2015
Annual 2015: The Depth of the Surface, National Academy Museum, New York, US
Our Land / Alien Territory (part of the special program of the 6th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art), Manege, Moscow, Russia
Doris Duke's Shangri La: Architecture, Landscape and Islamic Art, Honolulu Museum of Art, Honolulu, US
Come as You Are: Art of the 1990s, Monclair Art Museum, New Jersey, US
Hare & Hound Press + artpace: the Art of Collaboration, Artpace, San Antonio, Texas, US
Teoría del duende, Fondación Federico García Lorca, Madrid (and Grenada), Spain
2014
Past Traditions, Exhibit 320, New Delhi, India
Shahzia Sikander: Project Room, Perez Art Museum, Miami, US
Infinite Challenge, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea
Yebisu International Festival for Art and Architecture, Tokyo, Japan
Still Moves, ArtC Phoenix Market City, Chennai, India
Dhaka Art Summit, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Past Traditions/New Voices in Asian Art, Hofstra University Museum, New York, US
2013
13th Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul, Turkey
Beyond Belief: Highlights from SFMOMA Collection, Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, US
The Collectors Show, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
Echoes: Islamic Art & Contemporary Artists, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, US
If you were to live here…, The 5th Auckland Triennial, Auckland, New Zealand
Mom, Am I Barbarian?, The 13th Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul, Turkey
Marking Language, Drawing Room, London, UK
NO BORDERS: Contemporary art in a globalised world, Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, Bristol, UK
Re:emerge, towards a new cultural cartography, Sharjah Biennale 11, Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE
2012
Doris Duke's Shangri La: Architecture, Landscape and Islamic Art, Museum of Art and Design, New York, US
Gifts of the Sultan: The Arts of Giving at the Islamic Courts, The Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, Qatar
The Annual 2012, National Academy Museum, New York, US
Guangzhou Triennial, Guangzhou, Korea
New Prints 2012/Summer, Selected by Shahzia Sikander, IPCNY, New York, US
Women In-Between: Asian Women Artists 1984-2012, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan
The 2nd Mardin Biennial, Mardin, Turkey
Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan
Shahzia Sikander and Jenny Holzer, Kogod Courtyard at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC, US
Contemporary Asian Art: Texas Connections, Asia Society Texas Centre, Houston, US
2011
Power of Doubt, Guangdong Times Museum, Guangzhou, China
Patria o Libertad! On Patriotism, Immigration and Populism, Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto, Canada
Future Pass: From Asia to the World, 54th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
Gifts of the Sultan: The Arts of Giving at the Islamic Courts, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, US
2010
By Day, By Night, some (special) things a museum can do, Rockbund Museum, Shanghai, China
Transformation, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan
Video Art: Replay : Part 2: Everyday Imaginary, Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) at the University of Philadelphia, US
Space, From MAXXI’s collections of art and architecture, MAXXI National Museum of XXI Century Arts, Rome, Italy
Monumental ‘Miniatures’: Large-scale Paintings from India, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, US
The Holy Artwork, Emerson Gallery at Hamilton College, Clinton, New York, US
2009
Animamix Biennial: Visual Attract and Attack, Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, Taiwan
Taswir: Pictorial Mappings of Islam and Modernity, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany
Something About Mary, Gallery Met, New York, US
The 4th Fukuoka Asian Art Triennial, Fukuoka, Japan
Moving Perspectives: Shahzia Sikander and Sun Xun, Sackler Gallery, The Smithsonian, Washington DC, US
Significant and Insignificant Events, Istanbul Modern, Istanbul, Turkey
It’s fine as long as you draw but don’t film, Pilar Corrias, London, UK
A Decade of Contemporary American Printmaking: 1999-2009, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
Compass in Hand: Selections from the Judith Rothschild Foundation Contemporary Drawings Collection, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, US; Institut Valencià d’Art Modern, Valencià, Spain
One Image May Hide Another: Arcimboldo-Dali-Raetz, Galeries Nationals du Grand Palais, Paris, France
The 2nd Animamix Biennial, Taipei, Taiwan
Tsinghua University and Today Art Museum, Beijing, China
2008
Order. Desire. Light. : An Exhibition of Contemporary Drawings, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland
The Big Bang, Museo Carlo Bilotti, Rome, Italy
ev+a 2008 too early for vacation, Limerick, Ireland
Demons, Yarns & Tales, The Dairy, London – UK; The Loft, Miami, US
Perverted by Theater, Apexart, New York, US
International Triennial of Contemporary Art, Prague, Czech
2007
Delicatessen, University Galleries, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, US
Don’t Look: Contemporary Drawings from an Alumna’s Collection (Martina Yamin, class of 1958), Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley, US
In Wonderland, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Scottsdale, US
Timer: Intimita/Intimacy, Triennale Bosvisa, Milan, Italy
New Media/New Materials: Highlights in Contemporary Art from the Fabric Workshop Museum, Contemporary Art Center, Cincinnati, Ohio, US
The Travelling Gallery, Edinburgh, UK
Not For Sale, PS1, Long Island City, New York, US
Cosmologies, James Cohen Gallery, New York, US
Global Feminisms, Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Contemporary Art at The Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn; Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley College, Wellesley, US
Take 2: Women Revisiting Art History, SFMoMA, Mills College Art Museum, Oakland, US
Fantasmagoria, Dibujo en movimiento, Fundacion ICO, Madrid, Spain
Hammer Contemporary Collection Part II, The Hammer Museum at UCLA, Los Angeles, US
2006
Dirty Yoga: 2006 Taipei Biennial, Taipei, Taiwan
Domains of Wonder: Masterworks of Indian painting, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, US
Without Boundary: Seventeen ways of Looking, Museum of Modern Art, New York, US
Shahzia Sikander. The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, US
Video Venice, Adelaide Festival of the Arts, Adelaide, Australia
Nuevos Misticos/New Mystics, Instituto Cabrera Pinto, La Laguna. Tenerife, Spain
The Quiet in The Land, National Museum, Luang Prabang, Laos
JaGGy-edge, The Traveling Gallery, Edinburgh, UK
2005
Translation, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
Always a little further, 51st International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
New Work/ New Acquisitions, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, US
Drawing Narrative, College of Wooster Art Museum, Wooster, US
Fatal Love: South Asian American Art Now, The Queens Museum of Art, Queens, New York, US
Zeitsprunge Raumfolgen, IFA: Institut fur Auslandsbeziehungen, Berlin, Germany
2004
The Print Show, Exit Art, New York, US
First International Biennial of Contemporary Art-The joy of my dreams, Charterhouse of Santa Maria de las Cuevas, Seville, Spain
Through Master's Eyes, LA County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, US
Watercolor Worlds, Dorsky Gallery, New York, US
Along the X-Axis: Video Art from India and Pakistan, Apeejay Media Gallery, New Delhi, India
Beyond East and West, Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, Illinois; Louisiana State University Museum of Art, Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire; Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Massachusetts, US
Anywhere but here, Seven artists Pernament Commissions for Barts, UK
2003
Poetic Justice, The 8th International Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul, Turkey
Aliens in America: Others in the USA, Lamont Gallery, Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire, US
Drawing the World: Masters to Hipsters, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
2002
AOP 2002: The 37th Art on Paper Exhibition, Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, North Carolina, US
Drawing Now: Eight Propositions, Museum of Modern Art, Queens, New York, US
Time/Frame, Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, US
Urgent Painting, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris/ARC, Paris, France
2001
Conversations with Traditions, Nilima Sheikh and Shahzia Sikander, Asia Society, New York; travelled to: Middlebury College Museum of Art, Middlebury, VT; Royal Museum of Ontario, Toronto, Canada; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA; The University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, US*
ARS 01, Kiasma, Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland
Elusive Paradise: The Millennium Prize, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada
Threads of Vision: Toward a New Feminine Poetics, Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, Cleveland, Ohio, US
Expanding Tradition: Contemporary Works Influenced by Indian Miniatures, Deutsche Back Lobby Gallery, New York, US
New Works: 01.1 Rivane Neuenschwander, Shahzia Sikander, Tony Villejo, ArtPace, San Antonio, Texas, US
New Artists, Recent Works, Rhotas Gallery, Islamabad, Pakistan
2000
Projects 70, Museum of Modern Art, New York, US
00, Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York, US
Drawing on the Figure: Works on paper of the 1990s from the Manilow Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, US
Greater New York, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, Queens, New York, US
The American Century: Art & Culture 1900-2000, Part II, 1950-2000, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, US
1999
Negotiating Small Truths, Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas at Austin, US
Art-Worlds in Dialogue, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany
The 3rd Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT3), Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia
The American Century: Art & Culture 1900 – 2000, Part II, Whitney Museum of American Art, US
1998
On the Wall: Shahzia Sikander, William Kentridge, Barry McGee, Margaret Kilgallen, Forum for Contemporary Art, St. Louis, Missouri, US
On Liberating Tradition: Byron Kim, Yinka Shonibare and Shahzia Sikander, Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, US
Global Vision: New Art from the 90s, Part II, Deste Foundation, Center for Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece
Pop Surrealism, Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut, US
I Love New York, Ludwig Museum, Cologne, Germany
Cinco continentes y una ciudad: Salón internacional de pintura, Museo de la Ciudad de México, Mexico City, Mexico
1997
Out of India: Contemporary Art of the South Asian Diaspora, Queens Museum of Art, New York, US
Three Great Walls, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, US
7th Bienal Internacional de Escultura E Desenho, Caldas de Rainha, Portugal
The Whitney Biennial, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, US
1995
An Intelligent Rebellion, Women Artists of Pakistan, Cartwright Hall, Lister Park, Bradford, UK
Houston Area Exhibition, Blaffer Gallery, University of Houston, US
Core Fellows Exhibition 1996, Glassell School of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, US
1994
A Selection of Contemporary Paintings from Pakistan, Pacific Asia Museum, Pasadena, California, US
*Indicates catalogue
EDUCATION
1995
M.F.A., Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island, US
1992
B.F.A., National College of Arts, Lahore, Pakistan
AWARDS, GRANTS AND RESIDENCIES
2016
Vikram and Geetanjali Kirloskar Visiting Scholar in Painting, Rhode Island School of Design, Rhode Island
2015
Asia Society Award for Significant Contribution to Contemporary Art, Asia Society Art Gala, Hong Kong
2014
Tang Teaching Museum at Skidmore College, Satatoga Springs, New York
Art Prize in Time-Based Art from Grand Rapids Museum
Bildmuseet Umea University, Sweden
2012
Inaugural Medal of Art, US Department of State (AIE), Washington D.C.
2010
SCMP Art Futures Award, Hong Kong International Art Fair
Academician of the National Academy Museum
2009
The Inaugural Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Creative Arts Fellowship
Guggenheim Asian Arts Council
2008
Performing and Visual Arts Achiever of the Year award presented by the South Asian Excellence Awards
2007
Artist-in-residence, DAAD program 2007-2008 (Berliner Künstlerprogramm, Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst)
2006
Young Global leader, World Economic Forum
John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship ‘Genius’ Award
2005
Tamgha-e-imtiaz, National Medal of Honor, Government of Pakistan
Jennifer Howard Coleman Distinguished Lectureship and Residency
2003
Commendation Award, Mayor's Office, City of New York
1999
The Joan Mitchell Award
South Asian Women's Creative Collective Achievement Award
1997
The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award
1995
Core Fellowship 1995 - 1997, Glassell School of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
1993
Graduate Fellowship Award 1993-1995, Rhode Island School of Design, Rhode Island
1992
Shakir Ali Award/Kipling award, (highest merit award) National College of Arts Lahore Haji Sharif Award, Pakistan
Sharif Award, (excellence in Miniature Painting) National College of Arts, Lahore
1992
Distinction Award, Thesis Project, National College of Arts, Lahore