Shahzia Sikander and Julie Mehretu Exhibitions in New York Reveal Queer Affinities
This summer, New York City is featuring major exhibitions by Shahzia Sikander and Julie Mehretu, showcasing their shared artistic backgrounds. At the Morgan Library & Museum, Sikander’s work from 1987 to 2003 is on display, while Mehretu’s retrospective at the Whitney Museum spans 1996 to 2019. Both artists, who were part of the same group of feminist artists of color at RISD in the mid-90s, draw inspiration from themes of war and displacement. Their pieces, like Sikander's 'Promiscuous Intimacies' (2020) and Mehretu's 'Cairo' (2013), explore concepts of desire and protest through complex drawings and striking black lines. Sikander's show runs until September 26, and Mehretu's until August 8.
Key facts
- Shahzia Sikander's survey exhibition covers 1987-2003 at the Morgan Library & Museum through September 26
- Julie Mehretu's retrospective spans 1996-2019 at the Whitney Museum of American Art through August 8
- Both artists attended Rhode Island School of Design in the mid-1990s as part of a feminist artists of color cohort
- Sikander was born in Lahore and relocated to the US in 1993
- Mehretu was born in Addis Ababa and her family fled in 1977, settling in Michigan
- Both participated in the Core Fellowship Program at Houston's Glassell School of Art
- Sikander curated Mehretu's first New York exhibition at Exit Art in 1999
- Their work establishes a 'queer optic' that disorganizes colonial modernity's visual regimes
Entities
Artists
- Shahzia Sikander
- Julie Mehretu
- Kara Walker
- Rick Lowe
- Agnolo Bronzino
- Édouard Glissant
- Michael Brown
Institutions
- Morgan Library & Museum
- Whitney Museum of American Art
- Rhode Island School of Design
- Glassell School of Art
- Core Fellowship Program
- Project Row Houses
- Exit Art
- ArtReview Asia
Locations
- New York City
- New York
- Lahore
- Pakistan
- Addis Ababa
- Ethiopia
- Rhode Island
- United States
- Michigan
- Houston
- Texas
- Third Ward
- Cairo
- Egypt
- Mexico City
- Mexico
- Beijing
- China
- Ferguson
- Missouri
- Tahrir Square
- Zócalo
- Tiananmen Square