Working in the style of Indo-Persian miniature painting, Hiba Schahbaz uses water-based pigment and black tea to capture the beauty and fragility of the nude female form. Whether the Pakistan-born, New York–based artist situates her female figures in the natural world or in domestic settings, they always challenge the conventions of the male gaze. Schahbaz first studied miniature painting at the National College of Art in Lahore before completing her MFA at Pratt Institute in 2012. In 2018, she was an artist in residence at MASS MoCA, and she has exhibited in New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Miami, Turin, Karachi, Lahore, and elsewhere. While Schahbaz bases her paintings on photos she’s taken of her own body, her canvases offer universal stories about freedom, sexuality, and censorship.