India, Oct. 2 -- To understand Feroza Hakeem's paintings, it's essential to know her story. She was born into the marginalised Hazara community in Quetta, a semi-arid region in Balochistan in Pakistan, where her grandfather had migrated decades ago to escape the violent persecution of their Shia community by the Sunni rulers of their native Afghanistan. But even with the change in location, the marginalisation and hatred against Shias continued. Hakeem's brother was murdered in a targeted killing in 2018.

As an artist, Hakeem turns this fraught personal and communal history into bright and beautiful naturescapes created in the Persian miniature style. There are no straightforward scenes of violence or suffering. Instead, the grief, tensi...