When was the last time that a work of art held your attention so completely, everything else seemed to fall away? It happened to me recently, regarding a breathtaking miniature painting by the Brooklyn-based Pakistani artist Hiba Schahbaz.
In The Guard (2015-2025), a nude angel emerges from within the rose-colored walls of a building enveloped in diaphanous clouds and delicate blue dragons, some exhaling trails of gold pigment. Around her, a court of female guards—resplendent in meticulously rendered headpieces and shields—stands solemnly, inviting the viewer to surrender to its mesmerizing intricacy.
Hiba Schahbaz, The Guard, 2015-2025. Gouache, gold leaf and watercolor on wasli. 49 in. by 42 in.
Courtesy of the artist
Growing up in Karachi, Schahbaz recalls hiding beneath her sheets, sketching tiny figures late into the night. Years later, when she attended art school at the National College of Arts in Lahore and was formally introduced to Indo-Persian miniature painting—a time-honored art form defined by painstaking detail and layered storytelling—her childhood pastime transformed into a professional preoccupation.
“The second I started painting miniatures in school, something just clicked,” Schahbaz says. “There’s so much prep work that goes into it—we’d make our own paper, brushes, and paint, and spend a week just drawing tiny lines. There was so much ritual to it. It all fit perfectly, and I knew this was what I was going to be doing for a very long time.”
Indeed, for more than 15 years, Schahbaz has cultivated a practice rooted in poetic miniature paintings that merge autobiographical and mythological elements. Over time, however, it’s expanded to include larger compositions and installations too—a number of which are on show in “Hiba Schahbaz: The Garden” at the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami. Curated by Jasmine Wahi, it’s the artist’s first solo museum exhibition, and features more than 70 works exploring fantasy, heritage, and selfhood.
