I rented from the Library Network this 2 Vol.  video titled ART:21 ART IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTRY.

I give it 6 thumbs up, that's myself and family. We loved it and today I ordered on line from the library Vol 2.

Here's the link to more info.

http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/sikander/index.html

I'm posting this young woman because her art was so amazing and she said it take 10 years to paint it.

Sikander has written: “Such juxtaposing and mixing of Hindu and Muslim iconography is a parallel to the entanglement of histories of India and Pakistan.”

Shahzia Sikander
17 April - 17 June 2006

Shahzia Sikander, in collaboration with The Fabric Workshop and Museum, The Illustrated Page Series #1, 2005-6. Work on paper (gouache hand painting, gold leaf, and silkscreen pigment). 80x66 inches (framed).

Artist Talk and Reception
Friday, 5 May 2006
6:00 p.m.

www.fabricworkshop.org

Layers of illustrative and abstract imagery coat the surfaces of The Fabric Workshop and Museum (FWM) Artist-in-Residence Shahzia Sikander's work whether on paper, paintings or digital animation. Embedded in each layer are open-ended narratives that reveal multi-faceted and constantly morphing relationships. Sikander appropriates imagery from her own visual vocabulary and universal modern motifs, further abstracting symbols from her previous works. Constantly beguiling the viewer from making literal interpretations, Sikander creates an emotional and visceral experience. Raised as a Muslim in Lahore, Pakistan, she explores the thresholds of Hindu and Muslim culture often combining tropes and iconography from both. Through the addition of modern and non-traditional elements to the manuscript artform, Sikander forces the viewer to reconcile conflicting sensibilities hidden within beautifully rendered landscapes.

	Shahzia Sikander, in collaboration with The Fabric Workshop and Museum, The Illustrated Page Series #1, 2005-6. Work on paper (gouache hand painting, gold leaf, and silkscreen pigment). 80x66 inches (framed).

Pre-defined icons become open-ended narratives as Sikander abstracts and removes context from the imagery in her work. Cross-cultural images—such as sports equipment, animals, landscape and pattern—incongruously co-exist alongside traditional Southeast Asian motifs organized in swirling and tumbling compositions. Men's faces float around the boarder of the 'text' as mountains of land grow in place of their wind-swept headdresses. Identity is presented as "fluid and unfixed," and oppositions such as "west/east, white/black, white/brown, modern/tradition, presence/absence, beginning/end, and conscious/unconscious" are questioned in an ongoing dialog with tradition. Sikander's visual vocabulary re-introduces disparate deep-rooted allegories and illustrates them as an abstracted, shared, indeterminate and simultaneously dissolving and evolving story.

According to the artist, the result of her residency and collaboration with FWM is "a successful marriage of two materials" that had previously been independent in her work, and an important exploration of scale. Inspired by traditional manuscript form, the centerpiece for the exhibition measuring approximately 80 x 60 inches (framed) consists of two elaborately embellished prints. Adorned with gold leaf and gouache hand painting over silkscreened pigment, The Illustrated Page Series #1 (2005-6) is the first of three unique works on paper in the same named series made in collaboration with FWM. Both 'pages' display intricate landscape imagery and large surfaces of color and pattern. By utilizing the process of silkscreen printing in conjunction with gouache hand painting, Sikander magnified the imagery and vocabulary of the work for which she is well known.

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from PBS.com

http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/sikander/index.html

Shahzia Sikander
"Art in the Twenty-First Century," production still 2001 

Season 1. Episode: "Spirituality"
 Art21, Inc. 2001

Only “fair use,” for personal and/or educational purposes, of artwork is permitted: Art21 Copyright Notice

see her blog here>>> http://blog.art21.org/category/artists/shahzia-sikander/

Biography
Shahzia Sikander was born in 1969 in Lahore, Pakistan. Educated as an undergraduate at the National College of Arts in Lahore, she received her MFA in 1995 from the Rhode Island School of Design.
Sikander specializes in Indian and Persian miniature painting, a traditional style that is both highly stylized and disciplined. While becoming an expert in this technique-driven, often impersonal art form, she imbued it with a personal context and history, blending the Eastern focus on precision and methodology with a Western emphasis on creative, subjective expression. In doing so, Sikander transported miniature painting into the realm of contemporary art. Reared as a Muslim, Sikander is also interested in exploring both sides of the Hindu and Muslim “border,” often combining imagery from both—such as the Muslim veil and the Hindu multi-armed goddess—in a single painting.

Sikander has written: “Such juxtaposing and mixing of Hindu and Muslim iconography is a parallel to the entanglement of histories of India and Pakistan.” Expanding the miniature to the wall, Sikander also creates murals and installations, using tissue paperlike materials that allow for a more free-flowing style. In what she labeled performances, Sikander experimented with wearing a veil in public, something she never did before moving to the United States.
Utilizing performance and various media and formats to investigate issues of border crossing, she seeks to subvert stereotypes of the East and, in particular, the Eastern Pakistani woman.
Sikander has received many awards and honors for her work, including the honorary artist award from the Pakistan Ministry of Culture and National Council of the Arts. Sikander resides in New York and Texas.

For additional biographic & bibliographic information:
Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York
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Shahzia Sikander and Tim Hawkinson at MCA Sydney; Art21 videos on view

On view at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) in Sydney, Australia are two major exhibitions by Art21-featured artists: Shahzia Sikander and Tim Hawkinson. In conjunction with both of these shows, Art21 video profiles on each of these artists are running on a loop in the museum’s Resource Room.

Shahzia Sikander opened last month at the MCA and includes a major site-specific work which the artist created directly on the gallery wall.

Sikander’s work is characterised by its precision of line and delicacy of touch: from tightly structured miniature paintings to larger, more loosely formed watercolours in which pigments stain and bleed into one another. Historical tradition meets contemporary interpretation, incorporating both figurative and abstract elements. Since 2001, Sikander has also worked with digital animation, setting her miniatures into physical motion. Images break apart and reform in new hybrid permutations, while sound adds a further dimension.

Sikander was recently granted the prestigious MacArthur Award last year. She was recognised by the MacArthur Foundation for “merging the traditional South Asian art of miniature painting with contemporary forms and styles to create visually compelling, resonant works on multiple scales and in a dazzling array of media.”

Shahzia Sikander is on view at the MCA until February 17, 2008.

http://blog.art21.org/category/artists/shahzia-sikander/

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