Shahzia Sikander's Afloat beautifully incorporates many of the symbols and materials the artist has used to great effect in much of her unique work. Here, the she has used the idea of layering as part of the printing process, creating veiled images by thinly printing transparent colors of ink on both sides of a fragile, translucent paper. In areas of this print the effect resembles chine-colle and is a subtle reference to Sikander's installations, which incorporate overlapping sheets of thin, tissue-like or onionskin paper to achieve a similar effect. The strands of pearls, flaming tree and curvaceous feminine figures have all made other appearances in the Sikander's oeuvre, whether in miniature form or writ large. Afloat is included in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art, NY, the Brooklyn Museum, the Toledo Museum of Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Wooster Museum of Art and the New York Public Library.

Shahzia Sikander's recent exhibitions have included shows at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; Valentina Bonomo Arte Contemporanea, Rome, Italy; the Taipei Biennial; the Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, PA; the Miami Art Museum, FL; the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum, Saratoga Springs, NY; the San Diego Museum of Art, CA; The Quiet in the Land, National Museum, Luang Prabang, Laos; Not For Sale, PS1, Long Island City, NY;  Global Feminisms, Brooklyn Museum of Art, NY; Domains of Wonder: Masterworks of Indian Painting, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; Intimacy, Art Pace, San Antonio, TX, Acts of Balance, Whitney Museum, NY, Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, DC, the Kempner Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO, the Renaissance Society, Chicago, IL, Drawing the World, Vancouver Art Gallery, British Columbia; Beyond East and West; Krannert Art Museum, Champaign, IL; Contemporary Drawing Now, Museum of Modern Art, NY, Urgent Painting, Arc/Musee D'art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Time/Frame, the Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX;  Conversations With Tradition, Asia Society, NY, Threads of Vision: Toward a New Feminine Poetics, Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, OH, ARS 01, Museum of Contemporary Art, Kiasma, Helsinki, Projects 70, Museum of Modern Art, NY;  Elusive Paradise, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Greater New York, PS1, NY, The American Century, Whitney Museum, NY, Art-Worlds in Dialogue, Ludwig Museum, Koln, Germany, Negotiating Small Truths, Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX, Pop Surrealism, Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, CT, Global Vision-New Art From the 90s-Pt 2, Deste Foundation, Athens, Greece, Liberating Tradition, Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, NY and the Biennial Exhibition 1997, Whitney Museum, NY, among others. Shahzia Sikander is represented by Sikkema Jenkins & Co Gallery, NY.