• BIO

    Zehra Khan is a multidisciplinary artist working in drawing, sculpture, performance, and painting — the latter often on her fellow humans. Always playful, often absurdist and provocative, Khan uses unconventional and found materials and methods to explore relationships — those between individuals as well as those between humans and the flora and fauna of the world around us.

    Khan is American and Pakistani, born in Indonesia. She lived in Paris and Switzerland before moving to the US at age eleven. Zehra received a BS from Skidmore College and an MFA from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design low-residency program at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown in 2007.

    Khan has attended artist residencies at Yaddo, Ox-Bow, I-Park, Vermont Studio Center, The Studios of Key West, The Ellis-Beauregard Foundation, Art Space Sonahmoo in Korea, and Space A in Kathmandu.

    Zehra is a current participant of the NYC Drawing Center Viewing Program and the deCordova Museum Corporate Lending Program. She authored a children’s book “A Sunny Day for Flowers” and contributed artwork to “The Resistance Coloring & Activity Book.”

    Khan lives in Chicago.



  • ZEHRA KHAN
    Instagram @zehrakhanart

    EDUCATION
    2009 MFA, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, MA
    2004 BS, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY

    SOLO EXHIBITIONS
    2022 Zehra Khan: Your Everyday Myths, Provincetown Art Association and Museum, MA
    2020 Fakeries, Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Chicago, IL
    2015 Provincetown Venus, Artstrand Gallery, Provincetown, MA
    2012 Pandas vs. Skunks, Cape Cod Community College, MA
    2012 Animal Practice, Berkshire Community College, MA
    2011 The Weasel Problem, University of Massachusetts Lowell
    2011 The Pawn Shop, University of Massachusetts Amherst
    2010 Sweetheart of All My Dreams, Worcester State University, MA

    SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
    2021 Beyond Body, SpaceA at Tarragaon Museum, Kathmandu, Nepal (two-person exhibition)
    2021 Tiger Strikes Asteroid: It feels like, MANA Contemporary, Chicago, IL
    2021 Kitchen Sink, Riverside Arts Center, Riverside, IL
    2020 Provincetown Collagists, Julie Heller Gallery, Provincetown, MA
    2019 Tender Alchemists, Basic Studios, Chicago, IL (two-person exhibition)
    2018 Art Cannibal, AMP Gallery, Provincetown, MA
    2016 Primates and Friends, University of Virginia, VA
    2016 Lost Cat, Cape Cod Museum of Art, Dennis, MA
    2015 Animal Animist, Room 83 Spring, Watertown, MA
    2015 Working Women, Colby-Sawyer College, NH
    2014 Clouds, ArtStrand, Provincetown, MA
    2014 What Artists Study, Philips Academy, Andover, MA
    2013 New Impossibilities, Chazan Gallery, Providence, RI
    2013 Drawing on the Past and Present, Montgomery College, MD
    2012 Deconstructing the Habit, Spattered Columns, New York City, NY
    2010 The Yellow Show, Boston Children’s Museum, MA


    ARTIST RESIDENCIES
    2022 Ellis-Beauregard Foundation, Rockland, ME
    2021 Space A, Kathmandu, Nepal
    2020 Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Chicago, IL, By invitation
    2019 SWARM, IO
    2019 Studios of Key West, FL
    2018 Art Space Sonahmoo, Anseong, Korea, By invitation
    2018 Ox-Bow, Saugatuk, MI
    2018 Vermont Studio Center, VSC Fellowship
    2016 I-Park, CT
    2015 Mountain Lake Biological Research Station, VA, By invitation
    2015 Vermont Studio Center
    2013 Yaddo, NY
    2012 Vermont Studio Center, Joan Mitchell Foundation Fellowship
    2012 C-Scape Dune Shack, Provincetown, MA
    2010 Vermont Studio Center, VT
    2010 Contemporary Artists Center, Troy, NY

    ARTIST REGISTRIES & PROGRAMS
    2011-now deCordova Museum Corporate Lending Program, Lincoln, MA
    2010–now Drawing Center Viewing Program, NYC, NY

    AWARDS
    2012 Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship in Drawing

    SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
    Abraham Storer, "A Funny, Subversive Show Opens at PAAM", article in the Provincetown Independent, July 20, 2022

    Chester Alamo-Constello, “Zehra Khan – Meditative Masks, Curious Quilts & Engaging Travels”, The Comp Art & Design Magazine, University of St Francis, Nov 4 2021

    Nicole Mauser, “Trust Your Gut: Multidisciplinary Artist Zehra Khan Embraces the Spontaneous”, Newcity Magazine, June 2 2021

    Alison Williams, “10 Emerging New England Artists”, Art New England, March 2018

    Iqra Sarfaraz, “The Rat Girl”, You! Magazine Pakistan, Oct 2 2018

    Susan Rand Brown, "Zehra Khan's voyage of discovery in Provincetown", Provincetown Banner, Aug 7, 2015

    Megan Hinton, “Creature Comforts: Zehra Khan”, Provincetown Arts Magazine, 2015

    Jan Lhormer, “Cape Cod: An Evolving Mecca”, Art New England, July/Aug 2014

    David LaGaccia, “A Night of Performance Art Brings Soho Back to Its Roots”, Hyperallergic, July 11 2012

    Nell Alk, “A Grassroots Gallery Grows in Brooklyn”, NBC NiteSide, Nov 2010

    Meera Rajagopalan, “Text Messaging: Zehra Khan”, INDIA New England, vol. VII, Oct 2006


    PUBLICATIONS
    A Sunny Day for Flowers, Zehra Khan and Tim Winn, 16-page children's book, Soberscove Press, Chicago, IL, 2013