Soraya Sikander

Who is Soraya Sikander?

BIOGRAPHY for Soraya Sikander

Born in Karachi, Pakistan, Soraya Sikander established a reputation for painting floral images as a response to the on-going war on terror in her country, and landscapes-into-sea or cityscapes’, depicting the artist’s hometown and various travels.

The artist’s Father was a businessman and often traveled with her and her two elder siblings to the U.K and Europe. Soraya’s Mother is an intellectual/writer/academian and gallery director.

Sikander trained in her hometown Karachi, at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture in 2003, and then joined Beaconhouse National University Lahore in 2005. However the artist

expressed dissatisfaction with fine arts teaching methods in Pakistan calling all art education in her home country ‘prescriptive’.

She later on studied fine arts further at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London where she developed her most recognised sculpture the ‘Bride’ made of recycled material. Largely fabric, wire, foam and plaster.

Sikander started her career with a group exhibition in 2009 titled ‘Recession’ and painted a socio-political portrait of Adam Smith (Father of Capitalism).

Over the years the artist’ style changed drastically with a notably shift from study of anatomy to bare color based landscapes. Her landscapes were interpretative of Karachi, a sea city, with most of the work being tonal, with dramatic lighting. A notably proportion of the artist’s work consists of oil on canvas paintings, watercolors on paper, and charcoal or ink drawings mostly created on location.

The artist is largely inspired by Japanese woodblock print making, post impressionism and British Pop art.

Soraya Sikander has held over nine exhibitions including at the Dhaka Museum, Shilpaka Academy (Dhaka 2009), The Unicorn Art Gallery (Karachi 2010), The High Commission for Pakistan in the UK (2011), Royal Opera Arcade (London 2012), The Slade School of Fine Art University College London (London 2012), and Arts Council of Pakistan (Karachi 2013). Upcoming: Alhamra Art Museum (Lahore 2014).

Her work is largely inspired by the landscape of Pakistan and United Kingdom. Soraya has a keen interest in art history in South Asia. She is a member of the Foundation for Museum of Modern Art (fomma), and has arranged a research/academic talk on Pakistani art history at the Royal Asiatic Society of Ireland and Great Britain (RAS, London). She is the founder of Pakistan’s first Art Book Fair.

Her paintings can be seen at the Alhamra Art Gallery, Lahore Arts Council, Unicorn Gallery Karachi and Foundation for Museum of Modern Art FOMMA-Trust. Sculptural installations were site specific at the University College London.

Latest book on the artist: ‘Pakistani Artists’, 2010, ISBN-13: 9781156558416. Publisher: General Books LLC (Compiler), Available at Barnes and Noble.

Source: 2011/06/24 At one with Nature (Art & Culture) Khaleej Times, 2011/07/07 Question of peace, answer of art The Gulf Today, Wikipedia, Islamic Arts visual arts magazine, Unicorn Gallery Blog, Press Information Government of Pakistan website, Soraya Sikander Official Website.