About

Madiha Siraj is a mixed media artist whose work explores the organization of patterns, repetition, and color through identity and belief. She primarily creates process-driven sculptural reliefs influenced by Islamic geometric patterns and the theoretical foundations on which these patterns were built. 

Siraj’s process begins by molding individual pieces of polymer clay, a traditional craft material, in order to build densely patterned abstractions that extend toward the viewer in different forms. In her Flowers and Gradients series, monochromes and gradients explore color theory and dynamic texture, though the shape of the surface is imbued with significance. Circles contain the infinite and endless unity of the universe, whereas squares represent the material world in which everything has a beginning and end. 

In her Shattered Tessellations and 99 Names For The One series, Siraj contemplates identity through cultural motifs as a first generation Pakistani-American. Though Islamic geometric patterns seen through art and architecture inspire her interest in repetition, Siraj pays homage to traditions of Islamic artists intentionally incorporating minor “mistakes” in their patterns, celebrating a level of perfection which belongs only to God. 

Madiha Siraj lives and works in Indianapolis, Indiana.