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The Arts Intel Report

Shahzia Sikander: Collective Behavior

Shahzia Sikander, Arose, 2020.

Feb 14 – June 8, 2025
11150 East Blvd, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA

“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 two of Ohio’s eminent museums. —Elena Clavarino

Photo: © Shahzia Sikander/courtesy Joel S. Pizzuti