Shahzia Sikanderis one of the most influential artists working today. This lively volume presents her powerful early work (1987 to 2003) from South Asian, West Asian, and Western perspectives, illuminating new understandings for a wide audience.

Pioneering Pakistani American artist Shahzia Sikander is widely celebrated for expanding and subverting miniature painting to explore gender roles and sexuality, cultural identity, racial and other underrepresented narratives, and colonial and postcolonial histories. ExtraordinaryRealitiesdoes what no other publication has done by examining her work from 1987 to 2003, charting her early development as an artist in Lahore and the United States, and reclaiming her critical role in bringing miniature painting into dialogue with contemporary art, especially in Pakistan, international art discourse of the 1990s, and contemporary global practices and debates.