SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA.- The San Diego Museum of Art presents a newly commissioned, three-part installation by the famed Pakistani-born artist Shahzia Sikander. Her multimedia presentation will turn the tables on a group of traditional South Asian miniature paintings from the Museum’s renowned Edwin Binney 3rd Collection. Shahzia Sikander: Flip Flop, will be on view through June 27, 2004. Known for her paintings, drawings, and installations that transport Persian and Indian miniature painting into the realm of the contemporary, Sikander’s project, titled Flip Flop, will turn the tables on a group of South Asian paintings from the Museum’s Edwin Binney 3rd Collection currently featured in Sultans and Sufis: Paintings from the Deccan.

The Museum’s ongoing Contemporary Links series commissions noted artists on the contemporary art scene to respond to works in SDMA’s collections. The series debuted last spring with Regina Frank’s memorable performance and installation Whiteness in Decay, a work inspired by Juan Sánchez Cotán’s Quince, Cabbage, Melon, and Cucumber. This display explores the legacy of four Islamic kingdoms in south-central India (the Deccan): the Ahmadnagar, Bijapur, Golconda, and Hyderabad. The visionary, poetic, and richly colored painting styles created for the Deccani courts from the 16th through early 19th centuries were a product of a wide array of cultures that visited and traded with the prosperous kingdoms that ruled there. Also included in this display are religious portraits of Sufi mystics, which are among the finest portraits in the Indian painting tradition. Sikander, who now lives and works in New York City, will create an elaborate and thought-provoking installation that will consist of a series of eighteen works on paper. Her work often features women in diverse roles and situations that allude to the overlapping histories of her sources and her own life experiences.

Shahzia Sikander was born in Lahore, Pakistan, in 1969 and received her B.F.A. there at the National College of Arts. While in school she chose to take the traditional miniature painting course with Bashir Ahmed, a master practitioner and teacher. Sikander came to the United States in 1993 to attend the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, where she received her M.F.A. in 1995. Since then she has exhibited widely in North America, Europe, and Pakistan in solo exhibitions, group exhibitions, and biennials. Her work has been seen at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the University of Chicago; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Le Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; the Asia Society, New York; the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; and the Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art. Sikander is one of the artists featured on the Public Broadcasting Service’s television series and publication, art: 21. 

The historic San Diego Museum of Art provides a rich and diverse cultural experience for more than 400,000 annual visitors. Located in the heart of beautiful Balboa Park, the Museum’s nationally renowned collections include Spanish and Italian old masters, South Asian paintings, and 19th- and 20th-century American paintings and sculptures. In addition, the Museum regularly features major exhibitions of art from around the world, as well as an extensive year-round schedule of supporting cultural and educational programs.