Shahzia Sikander Reanimates Global Visual Histories at the CMA

CLEVELAND (February 13, 2025)— The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is pleased to announce that its  presentation of Shahzia Sikander: Collective Behavior opens on February 14, 2025. The exhibition premiered at the Palazzo Soranzo van Axel in Venice. Co-organized by the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) and the Cincinnati Art Museum (CAM), it was a Collateral Event in association with the 60th International Art Exhibition—La Biennale di Venezia in 2024. After Collective Behavior closed in Venice, iterations of the show traveled to both Ohio institutions, where they are on view concurrently.

The CMA presents Shahzia Sikander’s art in relation to historical South Asian works from the museum’s collection that inspire her. Collective Behavior includes works that span Sikander’s career and the many mediums that she has used. It comprises a series of conversations between our own time and the past that illuminate the artist’s primary ideas and inquiries. This iteration of Collective Behavior offers a narrative that the CMA is uniquely well suited to share, carrying forward in time the rich histories that are encompassed in the museum’s renowned South Asian collection. Simultaneously, it situates contemporary artistic practice in relation to the global history that precedes it. 

For more than three decades, Sikander (born 1969, Pakistan) has been animating South Asian visual histories through a contemporary perspective. Her work reimagines the past for the present moment, proposing new narratives that cross time and place. Working in a variety of mediums, Sikander considers Western relations with the global south and the wider Islamic world, often through the lens of gender and body politics. Her work is rooted in a lexicon of recurring motifs that make visible marginalized subjects. At times turning the lens inward, Sikander reflects on her own experience as an immigrant and diasporic artist working in the United States.

“Shahzia Sikander’s work looks back to our histories and forward to our futures,” said Emily Liebert, Lauren Rich Fine Curator of Contemporary art at the CMA. “Through this expansive perspective, she proposes new and deeply relevant narratives that cross time and place, helping us to see with fresh eyes the world we inhabit.”

Collective Behavior is cocurated by Ainsley M. Cameron, curator of South Asian art, Islamic art, and antiquities at the Cincinnati Art Museum, and Liebert at the CMA.

Photo: Agostino Osio

Exhibition Catalogue 

Shahzia Sikander: Collective Behavior is accompanied by a richly illustrated catalogue, published by Monacelli, featuring scholarly and poetic responses to Sikander’s work by contributors including Manan Ahmed, Aruna D’Souza, Bhanu Kapil, Rosalind C. Morris, Fred Moten, and Victoria Sung. 

About Shahzia Sikander 

Born in 1969 in Lahore, Pakistan, Sikander earned her BFA in 1991 from the National College of Arts (NCA) in Lahore, where she received rigorous training from master miniaturist Bashir Ahmad. She became the first woman to teach in the Miniature Painting Department at NCA, alongside Ahmad, and was the first artist from the department to challenge the medium’s technical and aesthetic framework. Sikander’s breakthrough work The Scroll (1989–90) received national critical acclaim in Pakistan, winning the prestigious Shakir Ali Award, the NCA’s highest merit award, and the Haji Sharif award for excellence. The artist moved to the United States to pursue an MFA at the Rhode Island School of Design from 1993 to 1995; from 1995 to 1997, she participated in the CORE Program of the Glassell School of Art at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Sikander moved to New York in the late 1990s and further developed her interest in deconstructing miniature paintings as well as questioning identity: what it means to not only be a practicing artist in the United States, but also Muslim, Pakistani, and female. Since 2001, Sikander has been creating digital animations, often on a monumental scale, alongside works on paper, murals, and installations. She has continued to experiment across media in recent years, creating sculpture as well as work in painted glass and mosaic. 

She has been exhibited widely since the mid-1990s, with major solo exhibitions at Madison Square Park, New York (2023); the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (2022); the RISD Museum, Providence (2021–22); the Morgan Library, New York (2021); the Asia Society Hong Kong (2016); the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (2007); the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2000); the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (1999); the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City (1998); and the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago (1998), among others. Her work can be found in the permanent collections of many institutions worldwide, including the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia; the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. 

Sikander is the recipient of the Pollock Prize for Creativity (2023); Fukuoka Arts and Culture Prize (2022); KB17 Karachi Biennale Shahneela and Farhan Faruqui Popular Choice Art Prize (2017); Inaugural Medal of Art, US Department of State (AIE), Washington DC (2012); and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship “Genius” Award (2006), among many others. She is represented by Sean Kelly Gallery. 

About the Cocurators 

Emily Liebert is the Lauren Rich Fine Curator of Contemporary Art at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Since joining the museum in 2017, she has curated and cocurated exhibitions by Nicole Eisenman, Liu Wei, Kerry James Marshall, Julie Mehretu, Raúl de Nieves, Emeka Ogboh, and Laura Owens, as well as the group exhibition Picturing Motherhood Now. Liebert has expanded the CMA’s contemporary collection through acquisitions of work by a diverse and global range of artists, many of which are featured in the current installation of the CMA’s contemporary galleries, which Liebert led in 2021. Before the CMA, Liebert had positions at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas. Liebert’s art criticism has appeared in Artforum and Frieze. She holds a BA from Yale University and a PhD from Columbia University. She was a fellow in the Center for Curatorial Leadership’s 2023 class. 

Ainsley M. Cameron is curator of South Asian art, Islamic art, and antiquities at the Cincinnati Art Museum, where she is responsible for the acquisition, research, and display of the museum’s South Asian, ancient Middle Eastern, Islamic, and ancient Mediterranean collections. She has extensive experience in curatorial practice, having previously held positions at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the British Museum, the British Library, and the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto, Canada. She has published, delivered lectures, and organized exhibitions that highlight the arts of South Asia and the Islamic world, exploring both historic and contemporary practices. Recent projects include Women Breaking Boundaries, a two-part, cross-collection exhibition that examined the museum’s engagement with female-identified artists, and Beyond Bollywood: 2000 Years of Dance in Art. Cameron completed her doctorate at the University of Oxford, her MA at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, and her BA at the University of Toronto. She was a fellow in the Center for Curatorial Leadership’s 2023 class.

About the Cleveland Museum of Art 

The Cleveland Museum of Art is renowned for the quality and breadth of its collection, which includes more than 66,500 artworks and spans 6,000 years of achievement in the arts. The museum is a significant international forum for exhibitions, scholarship, and performing arts and is a leader in digital innovation. One of the leading encyclopedic art museums in the United States, the CMA is recognized for its award-winning open access program—which provides free digital access to images and information about works in the museum’s collection—and free of charge to all. The museum is located in the University Circle neighborhood with two satellite locations on Cleveland’s west side: the Community Arts Center and Transformer Station.

The museum is supported in part by residents of Cuyahoga County through a public grant from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture and made possible in part by the Ohio Arts Council (OAC), which receives support from the State of Ohio and the National Endowment for the Arts. The OAC is a state agency that funds and supports quality arts experiences to strengthen Ohio communities culturally, educationally, and economically. For more information about the museum and its holdings, programs, and events, call 888-CMA-0033 or visit cma.org.

About the Cincinnati Art Museum 

One of the oldest arts institutions in the United States, and the first purpose-built art museum west of the Allegheny Mountains, the Cincinnati Art Museum features a diverse, encyclopedic art collection of more than 73,000 works spanning 6,000 years. In addition to displaying its own broad collection, the museum conducts extensive research and creates and organizes several exhibitions each year. It also hosts national and international traveling exhibitions. Through these critical projects and art-related programs, activities, and special events, the museum contributes to a more vibrant Cincinnati by inspiring its people and connecting its communities. 

The Cincinnati Art Museum is supported by the generosity of individuals and businesses that give annually to ArtsWave. The Ohio Arts Council helps fund the Cincinnati Art Museum with state tax dollars to encourage economic growth, educational excellence, and cultural enrichment for all Ohioans. The Cincinnati Art Museum gratefully acknowledges operating support from the City of Cincinnati, as well as its members. Free general admission to the Cincinnati Art Museum is made possible by a gift from the Rosenthal Family Foundation. Exhibition pricing may vary. Generous support for the museum’s extended Thursday hours is provided by Art Bridges Foundation’s Access for All program. Parking at the Cincinnati Art Museum is free. More information is available at cincinnatiartmuseum.org. 

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Major support is provided by the Malcolm E. Kenney Curatorial Research Fund. Additional support is provided by the Junaid Family Foundation and Herb and Jody Wainer. 

This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities. 

All exhibitions at the Cleveland Museum of Art are underwritten by the CMA Fund for Exhibitions. Principal annual support is provided by Michael Frank and the late Pat Snyder, the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation, the John and Jeanette Walton Exhibition Fund, and Margaret and Loyal Wilson. Major annual support is provided by the late Dick Blum and Harriet Warm and the Frankino-Dodero Family Fund for Exhibitions Endowment. Generous annual support is provided by two anonymous donors, Gini and Randy Barbato, Gary and Katy Brahler, Cynthia and Dale Brogan, Dr. Ben and Julia Brouhard, Brenda and Marshall Brown, Gail and Bill Calfee, Dr. William A. Chilcote Jr. and Dr. Barbara S. Kaplan, Joseph and Susan Corsaro, Ron and Cheryl Davis, Richard and Dian Disantis, the Jeffery Wallace Ellis Trust in memory of Lloyd H. Ellis Jr., Leigh and Andy Fabens, Florence Kahane Goodman, Janice Hammond and Edward Hemmelgarn, Robin Heiser, the late Marta and the late Donald M. Jack Jr., the estate of Walter and Jean Kalberer, Eva and Rudolf Linnebach, the William S. Lipscomb Fund, Bill and Joyce Litzler, the Roy Minoff Family Fund, Lu Anne and the late Carl Morrison, Jeffrey Mostade and Eric Nilson and Varun Shetty, Sarah Nash, Tim O’Brien and Breck Platner, Dr. Nicholas and Anne Ogan, William J. and Katherine T. O’Neill, Henry Ott-Hansen, the Pickering Foundation, Christine Fae Powell, Peter and Julie Raskind, Michael and Cindy Resch, Marguerite and James Rigby, William Roj and Mary Lynn Durham, Betty T. and David M. Schneider, Saundra K. Stemen, Paula and Eugene Stevens, the Womens Council of the Cleveland Museum of Art, and Claudia Woods and David Osage. 

The Cleveland Museum of Art is funded in part by residents of Cuyahoga County through a public grant from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture. 

This exhibition was supported in part by the Ohio Arts Council, which receives support from the State of Ohio and the National Endowment for the Arts.