Work – Shireen Ikram

Sensing the Living (Shireen, Akira, Una) – 8B2 Gallery, Chak Shahzad (Islamabad), Pakistan – March 2023

We all perceive our environment and surroundings differently. Paying respect to our processes and perceptions is the beauty of it all. The sensibilisation of humans towards other life forms is important, a process that needs to be intentional. An acknowledgement of the complexity of our mutual, relational existence. ‘Sensing the Living’ is a labour of love between three artists who met during a Visual Art Research Residency in Paris. Their mutual involvement in their respective fields of drawing, painting and photography resulted in them incubating this three-person show in Chak Shahzad, Islamabad.

Made in { } – Full Circle Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan- November 2022

I have created contemporary abstract self-portraits as an expression of collaborative self-reflection and in homage to the uncertainty of life. Constructing this collaborative self-reflection across different perspectives requires that I nourish a personal connection with my immediate surroundings and the environment within. I use photography paint and text as a conduit to channel and capture this connection; by approaching my surroundings from a place of self-reflective observation and reverence. By working through each painting in layers and embracing uncertainty, my process mirrors the narrative of the painting.

WORK IT OUT PLATFORM 2021 – A Hybrid Platform inhabiting the Digital and Analogue Space

The celebratory shouts of freedom from colonial rule were drowned out by the cries of millions frantically making their way through the corpse-littered landscape of India and Pakistan. After more than 100 years of the British East India Company rule and an additional 90 years of the British Raj, the Indian subcontinent had finally achieved Independence. What should have been a moment of crowning triumph after years of anti-colonial struggle was indelibly marred by unimaginable violence and bloodshed. How could neighbouring communities, accustomed to centuries of relative peace have suddenly turned so violently upon one another?

Borders, Borderlands and Crossings 2021

Mail Art 2020/2021

I was introduced to Jennifer Rae Forsyth, an artist on the other side of the world and we began our Mail Art collaborative on 17th March 2020. During this international pandemic our post card sized images, handwritten texts and letters took center stage especially in an era of instant messaging and FaceTime on the go. In the experimental artistic simmer of the late 1950s, the everyday creativity of letter-writing gave rise to a veritable movement: that of “mail art”, an anti-establishment of serial imaginative expression whose inclusive nature has kept it alive into the Digital Age. This rich, inspiring, tactile experience and exchange combined has given prominence to Mail Art or Postal Art/Correspondence Art.

Internal Landscapes – On the Wall/In the Mind – Full Circle Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan – July 2021

My Body My Choice / میرا جسم میری مرضی – Site Specific Installation – Peepal & Banyan – May 2021

SITE VISIT: Postcards from Paris / carte de visite à Paris – L’AiR Arts Exhibition Project – Online from 27 Oct 2020

Pakistan at 100-World Bank Islamabad, Pakistan-August 2019

Printmaking and Drawing

Collaborative Duo Show (Anjum Alix Noon and Shireen Ikramullah Khan) – “#12 Faces 12 Spaces” – Full Circle Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan – February 2017

Collaborative Duo Show (Anjum Alix Noon and Shireen Ikramullah Khan) – Hazy Opposition / Silent Resilience – Satrang Gallery Islamabad, Pakistan – Dec 2016 – Jan 2017

Hybrid Theory – Full Circle Gallery, Karachi – 2015

Rediscovering Female Narratives – PNCA (National Art Gallery) Islamabad, March 2015

Between The Lines – Comsats Art Gallery – Feb 2015 – March 2015

The Unknown Can’t be Avoided – VM Art Gallery – November 2013

Spontaneous Articulations – Art Chowk Gallery Karachi – July 2012

Gallery 6 Summer Group Show – Group Exhibition at Gallery 6 – June-July 2012

Cascading Lines – Rohtas 2, Lahore – March – April 2012

Blue, Orange and in Between – Alhamrah Art Gallery – Dec 12th 2011

Virtuosity – Paintings for De Drawing Studio – 2011

Perception vs Progression – Khaas Gallery, Islamabad – Feb 2011

Group Show – PNCA (National Art Gallery) Islamabad – March 2010

Dreams – Khaas Group Show – 2008

Commission Work for the Dag Hammarskjold Building – New York – Aug-Oct 2007

Two-Person Exhibition at Khaas Art Gallery Islamabad – May 2007