Idris Khan
OVERVIEW
Idris Khan（b. 1978, Birmingham, United Kingdom）received an MA from the Royal College of Art and lives and works in London. In 2017, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire.
Working across photography, painting, and sculpture, Khan visualizes the accumulation of time and memory through strategies of repetition and dense layering, superimposing the same motifs, texts, and musical scores. In his early “every…” series, he overlays pre-existing images—ranging from Qur’anic pages to the photographic typologies developed by Bernd and Hilla Becher—to generate images that approach an essential form and the lineaments of collective memory, creating something entirely new through repetition and superimposition. His sculptural works, including 65,000 Photographs, print and stack vast numbers of photographs he took over several years on his mobile phone, giving material weight to intangible digital data and critically reflecting on our compulsion to record, as well as the shifting conditions of remembering in contemporary life.
Khan created a monument in the UAE Memorial Park, Abu Dhabi, UAE in 2016, and held a major solo exhibition at the Milwaukee Art Museum, USA in 2024. His works are held in international museum collections including the British Museum, London, UK; the Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, USA.
HISTORY
2025
’Idris Khan: On Reflection’, Kamel Mennour Gallery, Paris, France
2024
’Idris Khan: Repeat After Me’, Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, USA
’After…’, Sean Kelly, New York, USA
2022
’Idris Khan’, Château La Coste, Le Puy-Sainte-Réparade, France
’The Pattern of Landscape’, Sean Kelly, Los Angeles, USA
2021
’The Seasons Turn’, Victoria Miro, London, UK
2019
’Idris Khan: Words Beneath Words’, Victoria Miro, Venice, Italy
’Quartet. Idris Khan’, Galerie Thomas Schulte, Berlin, Germany
’Idris Khan. Blue Rhythms’, Sean Kelly, New York, USA
2018
’21 Stones’, British Museum, London, UK
2017
’Absorbing Light’, Victoria Miro, London, UK
’A World Within’, The New Art Gallery Walsall, Walsall, UK
’Seven Times’, Galerie Thomas Schulte, Berlin, Germany
2016
’Idris Khan’, The Whitworth Art Gallery, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
’Rhythms’, Galerie Thomas Schulte, Berlin, Germany
2015
’Overture’, Sean Kelly, New York, USA
’Conflicting Lines’, Victoria Miro, London, UK
2013
’Beyond the Black’, Victoria Miro, London, UK
’Beginning at the End’, Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde, Dubai, UAE
2008
’Every…’, K20 Kunstsammlung NRW, Dusseldorf, Germany
2025
’Victoria Miro: 40 Years’, Victoria Miro, London, UK
’Idris Khan & Annie Morris’, Galerie Isa, Mumbai, India
2024
’TÊTE-À-TÊTE’, Mucciaccia Gallery, Rome, Italy
’From the Ashes’, Migrate Art, The Old Truman Brewery, London, UK
2023
’Idris Khan & Annie Morris: When Loss Makes Melodies’, Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery, London, UK
’Idris Khan & Annie Morris: After the Storm’, Fabian Lang, Zurich, Switzerland
’Two Worlds Entwined: Annie Morris and Idris Khan’, Newlands House Gallery, Petworth, UK
’Birdsong’, Timothy Taylor, London, UK
’Islamic Arts Biennale’, Hajj Terminal, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
2022
’Sound waves: Experimental Strategies in Art + Music’, Moody Center of Arts, Rice University, Houston, USA
’Lindisfarne Gospels’, Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle, UK
’Ways of Seeing’, JARILAGER Gallery, Cologne, Germany
2021
’Sound and Silence – Der Klang der Stille in der Kunst der Gegenwart’, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Bonn, Germany
’Orchestral Manoeuvres: See Sound. Feel Sound. Be Sound’, ArtScience Museum, Singapore
2020
’Beethoven Moves’, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria
2019
’Idris Khan & Annie Morris’, Galerie Isa, Kamani Chambers, Mumbai, India
2018
’Idris Khan and Annie Morris: Re-Imaginings’, Galerie Isa, Mumbai, India
2017
’From Selfie to Self-Expression’, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK
2015
’The Memory of Time: Contemporary Photographs’, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., USA
2013
’Slow: Marking Time in Photography and Film’, MOCA, Florida, USA
2012
’Hajj: Journey to the Heart of Islam’, British Museum, London; Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, Qatar
2010
’Art of Ideas Presents: The Witching Hour’, Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, Birmingham, UK
’Haunted’, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA
The British Museum, London, UK
The National Gallery of Art, London, UK
Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., USA
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA
National Gallery of San Francisco, USA
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, USA
Milwaukee Art Museum, USA
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, USA
The de Young Museum, San Francisco, USA
The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, Canada
Musée National des Beaux Arts du Québec, Québec, Canada
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Government Art Collection, London, UK
Arts Council Collection, London, UK
Middlebury College Museum of Art, Vermont, USA
Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, UK
Saatchi Gallery, London, UK
Norton Museum of Art, Florida, USA
WORKS
NEWS
‘Annie Morris and Idris Khan A Petal Silently Falls‘
KOTARO NUKAGA is pleased to present ‘Annie Morris and Idris Khan A Petal Silently Falls,’ a two-person exhibition running from October 29 to December 26, 2025. Both born in the United Kingdom in 1978, Morris is known for her sculptural series Stack, which places vibrantly colored spheres atop one another, while Khan is renowned for his serene works in blues and grays. Each has established an