“I have aimed at creating work with unpredictable diversity in pursuit of a multifaceted imagination,” the Pakistani-American artist Shahzia Sikander has said, “open to influences and experiences.” Sikander began by experimenting with Indo-Persian miniature painting, and from there expanded her practice into drawing, animation, installations, video, and film. She refers to the space between thinking and painting as “fiddling,” and says that entering this space leads to fluidity of thought and a crystallization of ideas. Sikander’s work is ethereal, historical, political, and delicately dreamlike, all at once. In this mini-retrospective, her work is displayed across the wondrous gothic palace Palazzo Van Axel. —Elena Clavarino

Travels to: Cincinnati Art Museum (February 14 – May 4, 2025) and the Cleveland Museum of Art (February 14 – June 8, 2025)