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 2009.
Khan has attended artist residencies at Yaddo, Ox-Bow, I-Park, ArtLab at the Mountain Lake Biological Research Station, 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 moved from the East Coast to Chicago in 2018, where she is a member of the gallery Tiger Strikes Asteroid.
ZEHRA KHAN
Instagram @zehrakhanartEDUCATION
2009 MFA, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, MA
2004 BS, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NYSOLO 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
2013 The Big Reveal, Cutrona Studios, Mashpee Commons, MA
2013 Flock of Seagulls, ArtCurrent, Provincetown, MA
2012 Pandas vs. Skunks, Cape Cod Community College, MA
2012 Animal Practice, Berkshire Community College, MA
2012 The Buffalo Warns the Whales, ArtCurrent, Provincetown, 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
2010 Beastly Habits, FlatBreadAffair, Brooklyn, NYSELECTED 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 East, Provincetown, MA
2019 Tender Alchemists, Basic Studios, Chicago, IL (two-person exhibition)
2019 Dot Conference, The Yard, Williamsburg, NY
2019 Dot Conference, Room 83 Spring, Watertown, MA
2018 Art Cannibal, AMP Gallery, Provincetown, MA
2017 Relationships, Riley Strauss Gallery, Wellfleet, MA
2017 Outlines: Provincetown, Cape Cod Community College, MA
2016 Mimi Gross, Marian Roth, Zehra Khan and Karen Cappotto, AMP Gallery, Provincetown, MA
2016 Flora and Fauna, Castle Hill Center for the Arts, Truro, MA
2016 COLOR AID, Provincetown Art Association and Museum, MA
2016 A Show of Contemporary Political Concerns, Zion Union Museum, Barnstable, MA
2016 Primates and Friends, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
2016 Lost Cat, Cape Cod Museum of Art, Dennis, MA
2015 Animal Animist, Room 83 Spring, Watertown, MA
2015 Working Women: 36 Contemporary Women Artists, Colby-Sawyer College, New London, NH
2015 FUNcFOLIO with New Talent, ArtStrand, Provincetown, MA
2014 Duos/Couples, Provincetown Art Association and Museum, MA
2014 Clouds, + four other group exhibitions, ArtStrand, Provincetown, MA
2014 All About Seven, Cape Cod Museum of Art, Dennis, MA
2014 What Artists Study, Philips Academy, Andover, MA
2013 Affordable Art, SPACEWomb, New York City, NY
2013 New Impossibilities, Chazan Gallery at the Wheeler School, Providence, RI
2013 Drawing on the Past and Present, Montgomery College, Rockville, MD
2012 Photography in the Era of Facebook, Gallery Ehva, Provincetown, MA
2012 Deconstructing the Habit, Spattered Columns, New York City, NY
2012 The Projected Image, + two other group exhibitions, ArtStrand, Provincetown, MA
2011 Disco ’94, Gallery Ehva, Provincetown, MA
2010 The Yellow Show, Boston Children’s Museum, Boston, MA
2010 Corallo, Handschuh and Khan, + 3 other group exhibitions, Gallery Ehva, Provincetown, MA
2010 Collective, Galatea Fine Art, Boston, MA
2008 Why Do You Do What You Do? Burning Man Arts Festival, Black Rock Desert, NV
2008 Rock and Art, Bank of America Pavilion, Boston, 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, NYARTIST REGISTRIES & PROGRAMS
2011-now deCordova Museum Corporate Lending Program, Lincoln, MA
2010–now Drawing Center Viewing Program, NYC, NYAWARDS
2012 Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship in DrawingSELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Abraham Storer, "A Funny, Subversive Show Opens at PAAM", article in the Provincetown Independent, July 20, 2022Chester 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 & Tim Winn, 16-page children's book, Soberscove Press; Chicago, IL, 2013. $10Pawn Shop: The Catalog, Zehra Khan and Tim Winn, 20-page exhibition catalog, Blurb, 2011. Catalog of pawn shop items for sale.
The Resistance Coloring & Activity Book, an anthology of Outer Cape Artists inspired by the call to rise up, Boheme Publishing, Provincetown, MA, 2017. Contributed artwork page.
