Episode No. 541 of The Modern Art Notes Podcast features artist Shahzia Sikander.

This weekend the Museum of Fine Arts Houston opens “Shahzia Sikander: Extraordinary Realities,” a survey of the first 15 years of Sikander’s career, from roughly the mid-to-late 1980s and until the early 2000s. It was curated by Jan Howard, and presented at the MFAH by Dena M. Woodall. The exhibition will remain on view through June 5. It was previously on view at the Morgan Library, New York and the RISD Museum. The RISD Museum and Hirmer have published an excellent book of the same title in association with the exhibition. It was edited by Sadia Abbas and Jan Howard. Indiebound and Amazon each offer it for about $45.

Sikander came to prominence by melding Indo-Persian manuscript painting traditions with contemporary life and issues such as feminism, cultural identity, and more. Among the dozens of museums that have presented solo shows of her work are the Perez Art Museum in Miami, the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo.

To see clips of videos discussed on the podcast, visit Sikander’s site:

• Disruption as Rapture, 2016;
• Bending the Barrels, 2009; and
• Parallax, 2013.

For a zoom-able image of Sikander’s The Scroll (1989-90), see The Morgan Library’s website.

Instagram: Shahzia Sikander; Tyler Green.

Air date: March 17, 2022.