IDRIS KHAN

After... showcases several exciting developments in Khan’s practice. The exhibition introduces a process whereby the artist deconstructs art historical masterpieces to rich pallets of colour referencing the volume and importance of the original painting’s power.

Khan’s newest explorations focus on colour and music, and their abilities to contain a world of memories, associations, and emotions which resonate on a universal level. Utilizing technology as complex as it is sensitive and poetic, Khan scans photographic reproductions of these artworks into a sound software that reveals their tone and color density. He then creates separate oil and water-based ink works with the dimensions of each color corresponding to the percentage in which it appears in the original painting. Each artwork is comprised of a grid-like structure of individually framed elements denoting the original work’s specific colour palette. Khan also assigns musical notations to each hue and transcribes them to create a score for each painting. The panels are repeatedly stamped, in Khan’s signature style, with each works distinctive notation and overlaid with collaged sheet music, carefully selected for its shape and pattern. With this new body of work, Khan moves from representing a collapse in time to making evident the soundscape of each masterpiece. After... takes as its source iconic paintings so familiar that they now form part of the collective unconscious, including Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, Johannes Vermeer’s The Milkmaid, and his Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window

Press release courtesy Sean Kelly