Waqas Khan, born 1982, will have his first solo exhibition in a museum or public institution at the Manchester Art Gallery, under the programme New North and South, opening 29th September 2017.
Waqas Khan’s abstract, minimalist drawings resemble webs and celestial expanses. He is inspired by patterns of biological organic growth and the lives and literature of Sufi poets. Using small dashes and minuscule dots, he creates large-scale, monochromatic work which invites contemplation and meditative reflection. In order to realise these immense configurations, the artist enters into a trance-like state in which he measures his breath to match his exhaustive mark making. Khan’s work is a meditation on infinity, eternity and the universe. He says “Leaving visible evidence of my contemplation on paper is the crux of my work. I want to fabricate togetherness and create a magnanimous totality.”
For Manchester Art Gallery Khan has created a new body of black and white work which will be shown alongside carefully selected existing work. Oracle, 2017 is an impressive large-scale oval composed of minute white circles on black paper. The new diptych Doors, 2017 was inspired by the architecture of Manchester, one side created from dashes and the other from circles. In a separate, specially created meditative space, the large-scale diptych My small dancing particles, 2017 is hung like an altarpiece, a circle cut in two and fragmenting.
In addition to the gallery space, Khan is siting a new series of neon artworks Kushamdeed, which means welcome in Urdu, near the entrances to Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester Museum and The Whitworth giving a warm greeting to visitors across the city.
The exhibition is part of a Manchester-wide celebration of shared heritage and historic connections between South Asia and the North of England. Marking the 70th anniversary of the creation of India, Pakistan and later Bangladesh, the programme will include exhibitions and performances by British and Asian artists. The programme is part of the New North and South, a network of eleven arts organisations, Manchester Art Gallery, the Whitworth, Manchester Museum, Liverpool Biennial, The Tetley in Leeds and Colombo Art Biennale (Sri Lanka), Dhaka Art Summit (Bangladesh), Karachi and Lahore Biennales (Pakistan), Kochi-Muziris Biennale (India) and the British Council.

OPENING: 29th September 2017

mpefm UNITED KINGDOM art press release