press releases
MacArthur Grants Awarded To U.S.-based South Asians
09/22/2006
Pakistani Artist Shahzia Sikander Among Recipients Of "genius" Award
By Lea Terhune
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington – Pakistani artist Shazia Sikander is among 25 people named by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to receive its 2006 “genius” award.
The honor includes a $500,000 grant with no conditions attached. The announcement was made September 19 at the MacArthur Foundation headquarters in Chicago. Sikander, 37, is a New York-based painter who blends South Asian art traditions with a broad range of contemporary media.
Sikander studied the fine tradition of Indian and Persian miniature painting at the National College of Arts in Lahore, Pakistan. Fascinated with the precise, stylized technique, she took it in a new, contemporary direction. Born into a Muslim family, she uses elements from Hindu and Muslim iconography, representing what she calls "the entanglement of the histories of India and Pakistan." Not limiting herself to traditional painting, she creates complex installations using various media. "This artist’s constant rethinking of media and visual sources makes her work a fluid, elaborately rendered commentary on diasporic experiences," according to the MacArthur Web site.
She often focuses on the role of women in society, depicting Hindu-style goddesses, Persian angels or veiled women confronting a complex reality. "I was interested in understanding feminism’s different roles and brands across the globe, especially as it related to my experience in Pakistan," she said in an interview.
Sikander earned a master of fine arts degree at Rhode Island School of Design. Her work has been shown internationally and in the United States, including at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington.
The MacArthur Foundation is a private, independent institution that awards grants to groups and individuals around the world that "foster lasting improvement in the human condition." Programs include global security and sustainability, human and community development and support of public interest media.
The MacArthur Fellowship program, limited to U.S. citizens or residents, identifies individuals "who show exceptional merit and promise of continued creative work." Grantees are not necessarily well known, but they are extraordinarily talented in their fields -- usually in ways that benefit society. There is no application process for the grant. Rather, candidates are nominated by specially appointed "nominators."
John D. MacArthur founded Bankers Life and Casualty and other businesses and his wife Catherine was director of the foundation. According to its Web site, the foundation has assets of $5.5 billion and is one of the largest private philanthropic foundations in the United States.