Idris Khan

Idris Khan has garnered global acclaim for his minimalist yet emotionally resonant photographs, videos, and sculptures, firmly establishing himself as one of the most compelling British artists of his generation.

Biography of Idris Khan

Idris Khan, born in Birmingham, England, in 1978, pursued photography at the University of Derby and earned his Master's Degree in Fine Art from the Royal College of Art in London in 2004.

In 2012, Khan received a commission from the British Museum in London to create a new wall drawing for the exhibition "Hajj: Journey to the Heart of Islam." Alongside this, Khan's impressive floor sculpture titled "Seven Times" was installed in the museum's grand Great Court.

Four years later, in 2016, the artist was commissioned by the United Arab Emirates to create the memorial park honoring UAE military service members who lost their lives. In 2017, Khan received the American Architecture Prize for his design of Abu Dhabi's Wahat Al Karama.

In the 2017 Birthday Honours, Khan was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his contributions to art.

In 2023, Khan collaborated with his partner, artist Annie Morris, for a two-person exhibition at Newlands House Gallery in West Sussex. Later in the same year, the artist couple presented another joint exhibition at Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery in London.

Currently, the artist lives and works in London, UK.

Idris Khan's Art Style

Khan uses a diverse array of media such as sculpture, painting, printmaking, and photography to explore themes of memory and the passage of time. His artworks frequently feature intricately layered imagery that straddles the line between abstraction and figuration. Drawing inspiration from literature, philosophy, religion, and the history of art and music, Khan's work reflects a rich tapestry of cultural influences.

Although Khan approaches his art with a painterly mindset rather than purely photographic, he frequently utilizes photomechanical reproduction techniques in his process. By photographing or scanning secondary source materials such as sheet music, pages from the Qur’an, or reproductions of late Caravaggio paintings, Khan digitally layers these scans. This method grants him precise control over minute details in contrast, brightness, and opacity. The final artworks often manifest as large-scale C-prints, characterized by surfaces that possess a striking optical intensity.

Khan has broadened his artistic repertoire to encompass sculpture and painting. In his sculptural pieces, he employs materials like steel plates, cubes, and horizontal stone slabs. Khan intricately sandblasts these surfaces with templates of musical scores or prayers, further exploring the convergence of cultural, visual, cinematic, and temporal memories into a rich, synesthetic experience.