Idris Khan: A World Within at The New Art Gallery Walsall

The New Art Gallery Walsall stages a major survey exhibition  (3 February - 7 May 2017) by Walsall-native artist Idris Khan. The exhibition will bring together significant bodies of work drawing on a range of interests including classical music, the history of art, literature, philosophy and religion.

The earliest work in the exhibition is an analogue photograph of a squash court wall bearing the marks made by the impact of coloured squash balls.   Taken when Khan was still a student in Walsall, this simple image resonates with ideas and processes which have remained central to the artist’s work.  Whether working with photography, painting, sculpture, moving image or installation, Khan employs a continual process of creation and erasure, adding layers upon layers, concealing and revealing to explore ideas around time, memory, creativity and spirituality.

Idris Khan was born in Birmingham in 1978 and his family moved to Walsall that same year.  After studying at Walsall College and the University of Derby, he completed his Masters degree at the Royal College of Art, London in 2004. He has exhibited widely, at museums and galleries nationally and internationally, and in 2014, collaborated with renowned choreographer Wayne McGregor to produce the stage design for Kairos, which was performed by Ballet Zürich and premiered at Zürich Opernhaus as part of Switzerland’s contemporary dance biennale.  He has recently been completing work on the design and production of a major public monument in Abu Dhabi.  Idris Khan is represented by Victoria Miro, London, Galerie Thomas Schulte, Berlin, Sean Kelly, New York and Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco.

Image: Idris Khan, A World Within, The New Art Gallery Walsall, UK

3 February – 7 May 2017

Images courtesy of The New Art Gallery Walsall (Photography: Jonathan Shaw)

© Idris Khan