Nilima Sheikh: ‘Studio’ at Frieze Masters 2024
The artist uses natural pigments on traditional paper to evoke Kashmir, interweaving oral narratives with contemporary accounts of racial and gender abuse
The artist uses natural pigments on traditional paper to evoke Kashmir, interweaving oral narratives with contemporary accounts of racial and gender abuse
‘The artist’s role is to bear witness – to both the past and present’ – Nilima Sheikh1
Nilima Sheikh explores the relationship between word and image to convey the environmental and political reality of the landscape that surrounds her. She draws from poetry, journalism, literature, legends and historical accounts – both of her own time and from the past – to extend the meanings of images.
The material base of her work bears its own layered history. In the early 1980s, Sheikh began researching traditional Indian tempera techniques, particularly those deployed in miniature manuscript paintings and pichhwai (temple scrolls). She also studied Italian renaissance painting, alongside Persian, Central Asian and Japanese sources. Employing natural pigments on layered handmade paper, Sheikh revives traditional technologies by utilizing specific brushes, pigments and binders. She also uses stencils in her paintings that have been created for her by the Sanjhi artists of Mathura.
Besides her long engagement with feminist realities, the complex political situation of the Kashmir region has been at the heart of Sheikh’s work over the past 20 years. Her delicate landscapes interweave oral and visual narratives with harsh contemporary events, including accounts of racial and gender abuse. Sheikh’s work gives new meaning to the term ‘pastoral’ by activating the poetic beauty of the landscape to communicate the urgent political circumstances of our time.
Nilima Sheikh is showing with Chemould Prescott Road at Frieze Masters 2024.
About Studio at Frieze Masters 2024
Following its debut in 2023, Studio, curated by Sheena Wagstaff, highlights Frieze Masters’ commitment to living practice in dialogue with historical art. By focusing on artists’ place of making, it reflects the idea of the past informing the present moment of creation in an object for the future.
Studio features ten solo presentations by Beatrice Caracciolo (Paula Cooper Gallery), Isabella Ducrot (Sadie Coles HQ, Galerie Gisela Capitain and Standard [Oslo]), Nathalie Du Pasquier (Pace Gallery), Shirazeh Houshiary (Lisson Gallery), Kim Yun Shin (Lehmann Maupin), Mernet Larsen (James Cohan), Thaddeus Mosley (Karma), Doris Salcedo (White Cube), Nilima Sheikh (Chemould Prescott Road) and Adriana Varejão (Victoria Miro).
Further Information
Frieze London and Frieze Masters, 9 – 13 October 2024, The Regent’s Park.
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1 Nilima Sheikh, gallery statement, Chemould Prescott Road, accessed 2 August 2024.
Video footage courtesy of Sashikanth Thavudoz
