The National Museum of XXI Century Arts (MAXXI) in Rome, Italy will host Shahzia Sikander: Ecstasy as Sublime, Heart as Vector, curated by Hou Hanru and Anne Palopoli. The exhibition will be on view from June 22-October 23, 2016.
In the exhibition, Shahzia Sikander observes the present through the lens of the imagination, symbols, literature and history of diverse cultural traditions. Her rich, complex oeuvre is housed for the first time in an Italian museum with this exhibition that shows the artist’s work from 1990’s to the present day.
The artist will create a layout specifically for the museum with over 30 works in various media and idioms, from drawing to miniatures referring to the Indo-Persian tradition and from video to digital animation. Included are works born from critical thinking and inquiry of historical, literary and political positions that delineate the inherent complexity of universal themes ranging from the pre-colonial to the post-colonial, geopolitical changes, migration, cultural quarantine and the birth of nations and religion and ultimately human identity.
