b. 1978, Birmingham, England

Idris Khan works across a number of media to explore ideas of authorship, narrative, temporality, and repetition. Khan creates his monochromatic, palimpsest artworks by layering images – be it photographs of the Qur’an, of the London skyline, or sheets of Chopin’s Nocturnes for the Piano – and then digitally manipulating them (often until they become almost unrecognisable), to create a picture in which time and narrative have been dramatically compressed. Twinning issues like religion, music, and literature, with a Minimalist aesthetic, Khan’s varied works encourage us to rethink how we engage with our collective history and culture.

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