Metal, Acid, and Ink

Artist Nicola López (NEE-kohl-lah LOH-pez) grew up in Santa Fe, New Mexico, but lives and works in New York City. Urban architecture inspires much of her work, including her 2008 Earth, above. López uses etching, woodcut printing, and collage to make a multimedia cityscape. She experiments with perspective, creating a partially distorted rendering of a cityscape as seen from below. The artist says that printmaking “resonates thematically with the work and with the environment that I’m talking about: this mass-produced, mechanized, technologybased, built landscape.”

López juxtaposes colorful geometric shapes with black, white, and gray buildings and a bleach-white sky in the center. Viewers often ask the artist why she doesn’t represent people in her urban landscapes. “It’s a great question,” the artist says. “We are in there, implied through builders and architects of this world.”

Artist Nicola López (NEE-koh-lah LOH-pez) lives and works in New York City. Architecture in cities inspires her work. López uses etching, woodcut printing, and collage to make a cityscape in her 2008 Earth, above. She experiments with perspective by showing the buildings from below. López adds colorful geometric shapes next to black, white, and gray buildings and a white sky in the center. The different colors make the shapes and buildings stand out.

Viewers often wonder why the artist doesn’t show people in her cityscapes. López says that she hopes viewers think about the people who build cities when they see her prints.

Pakistani American artist Shahzia Sikander (SHAH-zia SIH-kahn-dur) is inspired by small scales. Sikander studied the tradition of miniature painting in Pakistan. She challenges the centuries-old medium, experimenting with scale, technique, and personal themes, such as in her 2016 Portrait of the Artist, above. The image is less than two feet tall and almost a foot and a half wide. These dimensions are small for a portrait but larger than traditional miniatures.

The etching is one of four in a series. This one is a self-portrait. For centuries, mainly men shared stories about wealthy men in miniature works. Sikander subverts this trend by painting miniature works as a woman and by painting herself. She layers gold color and cropped images, exploring her identity in a contemporary etching. “Private stories are the ones that connect with us the most,” the artist says. “They are retold and they remain in our memory.”

López and Sikander expand upon genres, like cityscapes and self-portraits, that have existed for many years. They convey their own contemporary outlooks in 21st century etchings. How can you explore genre through a contemporary lens?

Shahzia Sikander (SHAH-zia SIHkahn-dur) is a Pakistani American artist. She studied the tradition of miniature painting in Pakistan. For centuries, artists have told stories with these tiny artworks. Sikander’s 2016 work Portrait of the Artist, above, is inspired by miniatures. She experiments with scale and gives the work personal meaning. The image is less than 2 feet tall and almost a foot-and-a-half wide. That makes it small for a portrait. But it’s larger than traditional miniatures.

The etching is one of four in a series. This one is a self-portrait. For centuries, both the artists and the subjects of miniature works were mainly men. As a woman painting herself, Sikander challenges this history.

López and Sikander experiment with genres to share their own perspectives. How can you bring fresh ideas to traditional genres?