In 1996, the then-struggling Egyptian artist Ghada Amer made an unusual deal with an American lawyer: one of her paintings for a green card. In retrospect it was a good deal for both parties. Her permanent move to New York launched her career internationally and the "visa" painting, worth $4,000 at the time, is now estimated at $125,000.

Amer has made a name for herself with controversial work of exquisitely embroidered pieces exploring female sexuality. She is working on an ambitious set of 13 prints at the Singapore Tyler Print Institute, pursuing a collaboration started in 2001 with the Iranian artist Reza Farkhondeh. She said she enjoys collaborating with this longtime friend because she feels their works complement each other. "He sees things in shapes and I see things in lines," she said. "My work also tends to be systematic. By working with someone else it give me the possibility of breaking the system and going further."

Given their explicit sexual nature, it remains to be seen whether the prints will be shown publicly in Singapore. At the end of the year, however, Amer is planning to show them at the Kukje Gallery in Seoul.