Shahzia Sikander

The Great Women Artists

Katy Hessel

Arts

4.8 • 877 Ratings

🗓️ 26 November 2024

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

I am so excited to say that my guest on the GWA Podcast is one of the world’s most renowned artists, Shahzia Sikander. Working across painting, sculpture, drawing, and animation, the Lahore-born, New York-based Sikander is widely celebrated for her work that subverts tradition and reclaims narratives – such as her subverting of Central and South-Asian manuscript painting and launching the form known today as neo-miniature. A holder of a B.F.A. in 1991 from the National College of Arts (NCA) in Lahore, it was Sikander’s breakthrough work, The Scroll, 1989–90, that received national critical acclaim in Pakistan and brought international recognition to the medium in contemporary art practices in the 1990s. Life then took her to the US, where she received, in 1995, her M.F.A. at the Rhode Island School of Design. Over the subsequent twenty plus years, Sikander’s practice – which has expanded into multiple mediums – has been pivotal in showcasing art of the South Asian diaspora as a contemporary American tradition. Solo exhibitions include at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston in Texas; the Morgan Library and Museum in New York; accolades include the Pollock Prize for Creativity, a medal of Art by the U.S. Department of State, and a MacArthur Fellowship; she is in the collections of all major national and international museums, and she is currently an adjunct professor for Fall of 2024 at Columbia University, Sikander's major outdoor project, NOW, an 8-foot bronze female sculpture, is permanently installed on the roof of the Appellate Courthouse in Manhattan. An accompanying 18-foot female sculpture, Witness, was exhibited in Madison Square Park in 2023, which then travelled to Houston – something we will get into later on in this episode. Her interdisciplinary practice, that has focussed on hybridised female figures that references goddesses from all different global perspectives, offers a perspective that breaks down all borders, disrupts assumptions around art historical boundaries. It is groundbreaking, trailblazing – and I can’t wait to find out more. -- THIS EPISODE IS GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY THE LEVETT COLLECTION: https://www.famm.com/en/ https://www.instagram.com/famm_mougins // https://www.merrellpublishers.com/9781858947037 Follow us: Katy Hessel: @thegreatwomenartists / @katy.hessel Sound editing by Nada Smiljanic Music by Ben Wetherfield

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello everyone and welcome back to the Great Women Artists podcast.
0:05.0	Just before we get to today's episode, I am so excited to say that this series is again supported by the Levitt Collection, a vast and varied art collection, of which a major and ever-increasing portion is dedicated to works by women artists.
0:19.0	Today, there are over 600 works by women artists in the
0:23.1	collection. After publishing the must-have book, Abstract Expressionists, the women in 2023,
0:29.2	Christian Levitt went on to open on the 21st of June this year, FAM, the first private museum in Europe,
0:36.3	entirely dedicated to women artists.
0:39.3	Located in Mujan, Nican in the south of France, this newly transformed space
0:44.4	features a stunning collection of over 100 masterpieces by many of the leading female artists
0:50.4	from impressionism to contemporary.
0:52.5	The impressive exhibition of paintings, sculptures,
0:56.3	photographs and more from the Levec Collection highlights the creative brilliance of women who have
1:01.3	played pivotal roles in shaping some of the major artistic movements of the modern period.
1:06.6	It's only 30 minutes from Nice Airport, FAMM, which stands for female artists of the Mujan Museum, is open every day and for further information and bookings, please visit www.fam.com.
1:20.4	I hope you enjoy this episode.
1:26.4	Hello everyone and welcome to the Great Women Artist podcast with me, Katie Hessel.
1:32.5	Some of you might know me from The Great Women Artists, an Instagram account I set up in October 2015,
1:37.7	which celebrates female artists on a daily basis, ranging from young graduates to old masters.
1:46.2	Well, in a similar fashion to the Instagram, this podcast is all about celebrating female artists from a variety of backgrounds and
1:51.9	histories. And I am so excited to be interviewing artists on their career or artists, writers,
1:57.8	curators or general art lovers on the women artist who means most of them.
2:02.4	What I want this podcast to do is celebrate female artists in all different capacities so you,
2:08.1	the listener, can gain a look into the greatest female artists working now or from art history.
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