Idris Khan
Thursday, 16 April 2026
Work from Overture at Sean Kelly, New York.
“Overture will present over 25 new works exploring philosophical and theoretical ideas surrounding global displacement and conflict, demonstrating Khan’s profound interrogation into language and meaning over a wide array of media. Khan has developed a unique narrative drawing on diverse cultural sources including art, literature, philosophy and music. His densely layered imagery inhabits the space between abstraction and figuration that speaks to themes of history, cumulative experience and the metaphysical collapse of time into single moments.
In this new body of work, Khan overlays thousands of lines of writing until all of the words meld into a single image, obscuring any one viewpoint and eliminating a definitive reading of the text. Whether it is on large gesso panels, in a photograph or onto glass, Khan’s multilayered approach creates a sense of expanded time, allowing the viewer to contemplate a deeper meaning buried within language. Through a continuous process of creating and erasing, adding new layers, whilst retaining traces of what has been, Khan creates something entirely new by way of superimposition and repetition. Two highlights of the exhibition will be a monumental sculpture comprised of seven panes of glass suspended in an aluminum framework – each pane containing words, which form an abstract radial constellation – and a large-scale site-specific wall drawing that Khan will be creating at the gallery.” – Sean Kelly