Gülsün Karamustafa with Shahzia Sikander at the 13th Istanbul Biennial

Gülsün Karamustafa was born in 1946 in Ankara, Turkey. She lives and works in Istanbul. Including painting, sculpture, video, and installation, Karamustafa’s work deals with gender, migration, identity, and history.

Shahzia Sikander specializes in Indian and Persian manuscript painting, a traditional, technique-driven style that Sikander imbued with a personal context and history, blending the Eastern focus on precision and methodology with a Western emphasis on creative, subjective expression. In doing so, Sikander transported manuscript painting into the realm of contemporary art. Expanding the manuscript painting to the wall, Sikander also creates murals and installations, using tissue-paper-like materials that allow for a more free-flowing style. Utilizing performance and various media and formats to investigate issues of border crossing, she seeks to subvert stereotypes of the East and, in particular, the Eastern Pakistani woman.