Elementa is proud to present for the first time in Dubai this much anticipated solo exhibition by the British artist Idris Khan, who will be showcasing a series of mostly new works.

Idris Khans photographs are not what they seem. In fact most of them do not seem like photographs at all and infact resemble charcoal drawings. Khan’s chiefly black and white images have been created by rephotographing series of existing images and digitally layering pictures of works by authors ranging from Caravaggio, Bach, and Freud to create new images, animated by the accumulative intervention of the artists hand. The works of such historical figures become literal building blocks for him to create one, single composite image.

His works deal with a play of appropriation with more characteristics in common with painting and drawing rather than photography. While Khan must have his own personal relationship to his sources, his images lead us to muse on high culture in general, and our own relationship to it. They are most satisfying in the places where the source and the artist’s intervention come together to generate a surprising visual effect or metaphor, in some instances challenging the viewer to digest all the words in one glance.

For his show at Elementa, Idris will be presenting new photographs based on music scores, books and Sufi text. He will also debut a single screen version of his recent film “Lying in Wait” in collaboration with British contemporary choreographer and dancer Sarah Warsop

Idris Khan was born in Birmingham, England in 1978 and now lives and works in London. He received his MA in Fine Art at the Royal College of Art in 2004 and has since exhibited internationally in a number of major group exhibitions including Contemporary Photography and the archive at SFMOMA. Recent solo exhibitions of Khan’s works have been held at Victoria Miro Gallery in London (2006), Fraenkel Gallery in San Francisco (2006), Thomas Schulte Gallery, Berlin (2007) and Yvon Lambert, New York (2007). His films have been presented at “ Late at Tate Britain” and Kunst Film Biennale in Koln and in 2008 Khan had his first major public art commission in London and opened his first five year retrospective at the K2O Museum in Dusseldorf, Germany.

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