> info
for more information
zehra @ zehrakhan.comRepresented by
Gallery Ehva in Provincetown, MA
> resume
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2010 Les Animaux, French Library Alliance Française, Boston, MA
Ocean Winds, Follen Unitarian Universalist Society, Lexington, MA
2009 Memories of a Landscape, Cary Memorial Library, Lexington, MA
2007 Bang, Follen Unitarian Universalist Society, Lexington, MA
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2010 Artists in the Arboretum 2010, Arnold Arboretum, Jamaica Plain, MA
In-Between, The Gallery at Worcester State College, Worcester, MA
Little Critters, The Nave Gallery, Somerville, MA
Collective, Galatea Fine Arts, Boston, MA. Juror - Dina Deitsch
Photos with Words, PhotoPlace Gallery, Middlebury, VT
Nine Lives, Doran Gallery - Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston, MA. Curator - Lasse Antonsen
First Exhibition of International Artists, Colin Parks Studios, Kirkpatrick-Durham, Scotland. Representing the USA - Andy Warhol and Zehra Khan
The Yellow Show, Boston Children's Museum, Boston, MA
Reunion Exhibition, Contemporary Artists Center at Woodside, Troy, NY
Sketchbook Project, Brooklyn Art Library, Brooklyn, NY. Traveling exhibition
Nude 2010, Lexington Art League, Lexington, KY. Jurors - Boris Zakic and Esther Randall
2009 Riders on the Train, Axiom Gallery, Boston, MA. Curator - Nance Davies. Photographs from the opening and artist talk in Big Red & Shiny
MFA Thesis Exhibition, Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Gallery Ehva, Provincetown, MA. Curator - Jim Peters
Leier and Khan, Brookline Library, Brookline, MA. Joint exhibition with Michelle Leier
2008 Why Do You Do What You Do? Burning Man Arts Festival, Black Rock, NV. Contest winner
Rock & Art - Doobie Brothers and Chicago, Bank of America Pavilion, Boston, MA
2006 New Work, Zenani Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan
2004 Thesis Exhibition, Tang Teaching Museum & Art Gallery, Saratoga Springs, NY
EDUCATION
Master of Fine Arts, 2009. Massachusetts College of Art and Design at the Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, MA
Bachelor of Science, 2004. Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY. Double major: Studio Art and an Independent Study in "Film as a Visual Art"
RESIDENCIES
2010 Finalist Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, MA
2010 August Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT
2010 March Contemporary Artist Center at Woodside, Troy, NY
MURALS
New Orleans Women's Art Collective, 2035 Mandeville Street, New Orleans, LA. April 2010. Designed for neighborhood participation.
2039 Dryades Street, New Orleans, LA. April 2008. In collaboration with Adam Scott Miller.
2517 Jackson Ave, New Orleans, LA. April 2008. In collaboration with Adam Scott Miller.
> artist statement
I transform my friends and myself into animals, painting directly on skin. This initiates a more social and collaborative art practice, and by painting on bodies I participate in acts of intimacy which are in themselves performances of social engagement. My painted volunteers become animal characters activating their environment, fictions drawn to understand natural, human behavior. Much like a kid building a fort out of pillows, it is the process of construction where I gather joy. The creation of this work spills into my real life, involving my friends, travel, playing, reacting, and assessing.
The animal character is placed within an environment/installation; a complete painted background on paper or sheets, or sometimes a recognizable reality of beds, nightstands, and beer collides with drawn elements. This environment plays with two-dimensional drawings crafted into three-dimensional scenarios - like old theater scenery of cutout waves moving against one another to simulate the movement of the ocean. I change the scale, proportions and relationships of the viewer within the space with these low-fi illusions.
The final product of this act is a photograph or film in which the viewer glimpses the surreal high jinks of a human disguised as a giant rat. Showing the photograph alongside the actual installation or filmed performance reveals more of the illusion and the process.
In a moment often indistinguishable between playing and fighting, my animals speak to the hazards of human relationships. In the vulnerable experience of searching for love and companionship, many of my creatures rely on alcohol, or they become social smokers. With these blunders come anger, excessive indulgence, frenzy, bliss and bitterness, which dramatize the complex motives of people who are trying to attract a mate. To become attractive, do we start to objectify ourselves, and to whose standards? I draw these characters integrating the personal with an art history canon, lampooning stereotypes pushed in advertising and pop culture.
