TAZEEN QAYYUM (B. 1973)

Tazeen Qayyum graduated from the National College of Arts Lahore, Pakistan in 1996. Her work has been widely exhibited in the United States, Canada, Japan, Nepal, London, Pakistan and Iran.

Tazeen's works represent an innovative development in the aesthetic of the neo-miniature. Having studied classical miniature painting techniques, she apprises the tradition in a contemporaneous context. According to artist and critic Quddus Mirza "she blends the two parts in such a manner that a new and independent narrative is created." (Q. Mirza, 'A Different Kind of Animal,' The News, Karachi, 24 September 2006) In The Making of a Miniature I, II, III, Tazeen explicitly refers to an existing classical miniature portrait of Begum Nur Jahan the wife of Mughal Emperor Jahangir, painted by Amar Das, circa 1825-30. This iconic subject, reproduced countless times, is a deliberate visual quote of the tradition of the practice of miniature painting. It represents a visual conundrum as these three works cannot constitute three progressive stages of the same process, but three citations of a singular image. This set of work is a playful sardonic homage to the practice.