KAY KHAN

Medium Rare
February 25th through April 23rd

About Kay Khan

At University, I studied ceramic sculpture and painting. After graduating, while looking for a job making furniture, I took employment as an upholsterer (thinking it's related, right?). The desire to sew was always there - both my mother and grandmother made quilts - but I'd never had an opportunity to learn until working at the upholstery shop. In the shop, one of the first and, as it turned out, most influential tasks was to take apart and rebuild a motorcycle seat. The pattern was complicated and sculptural. From that time, my attention turned to fabric as a potential artist medium. For at least a decade, while continuing to paint and collage abstractly, I experimented with possible ways to use fabric artistically and expressively until developing the technique I use today. All the techniques previously practiced coalesced: I started to "hand-build" (as in ceramic sculpture) with "slabs" of quilted material, "painted" with thread, and, ultimately, constructed sculpture with textiles.

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My work is a mosaic of fragments, collected experiences, information, and images. This mosaic is both ideological and visual. I like to begin with an idea that I allow to develop unhindered to encompass anything from the serious to the absurd. No thought is isolated and the simplest can build upon itself. Layers of connected thoughts revealed in a succession of images link and multiply in evolving variations. In my recent work, for example, I sometimes begin with just a word, but already this word comes with many meanings and connotations. Then I make a connection, a thin bridge, between each word and its images, and other perhaps abstract and veiled yet related ideas. My artworks are often labyrinths of intricate wordplay. I want the words to be read as fleeting and visual impressions that interact with the other stitched images. The figures in my work in combination with the words form a running commentary.

Selected Collections

ALBUQUERQUE MUSEUM, Albuquerque, NM
ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY ART MUSEUM, Tempe, Arizona
ASHEVILLE ART MUSEUM, Asheville, NC
DE YOUNG MUSEUM, San Francisco, California
MUSEUM OF ART AND DESIGN, New York, NY
NEW MEXICO MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, Santa Fe, New Mexico - a generous purchase/donation of the Adolf and Virginia Dehn Foundation, West Hartford, CT
RACINE ART MUSEUM, Racine, Wisconsin
Dorothy and George Saxe Collection
John M. Walsh III Collection
Sandy Besser Collection
Sara and David Lieberman Collection

Education

Coming soon!

Publications

2021 - ArteMorbida, "Kay Khan's Metaphorical Textile Sculptures" by Maria Rosario Roseo
2019 - HANDEYE MAGAZINE, "Adornment is Human", Ali Demoro
2018 - INTERSECTION: ART & LIFE, Kevin Wallace, Schiffer Publishing, PA
2018 - TREND MAGAZINE, "The Art of Adornment"
2014 - Online interview: CONVERSATIONS WITH THE MAKERS, the Fibre Arts Australia blog:
2012 - TEXTILES: THE ART OF MANKIND, Mary Schoeser, Thames and Hudson
2011 - FIBER ART TODAY, Carol K. Russell, Schiffer Books
2011 - FIBER ART TODAY, Carol K. Russell, Schiffer Books
2008 - SATURN RETURNS: BACK TO THE FUTURE OF FIBER ART exhibition catalog, San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles
2007:
EMBROIDERY, March/April, "Cover Story: Vessels of Meaning", Jessica Hemmings
PHOENIX HOME AND GARDEN, March, "Emerging Artists: Kay Khan, Fabric Sculptor", Jennifer Cushman
SURFACE DESIGN: Textiles and Ritual, Spring, "In Review: Marking Boundaries, Braunstein Quay Gallery", Jo Ann C. Stabb
2006:
SOUTHWEST ART, December, "Vases and Vessels", Bonnie Gangelhoff
SURFACE DESIGN: GALLERY ISSUE, September
500 BASKETS, A CELEBRATION OF THE BASKETMAKER ART , Lark Books, Sterling Publishing Co., Inc, New York, NY
FIBERARTS, January/February, "SOFA Chicago: Familiar and Fresh", Victor M Cassidy
JANOME.COM, "Kay Khan turns Janome Quilting into a Fine Art"
2005:
INTERTWINED: CONTEMPORARY BASKETS FROM THE SARA AND DAVID LIEBERMAN COLLECTION, Exhibition Catalog, Arizona State University Art Museum
SOFA CHICAGO: THE INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION OF SCULPTURE, OBJECTS, AND FUNCTIONAL ART Exhibition Catalog
FIBERARTS, November/December, "SOFA Chicago: What’s On"
THE MAGAZINE, November, "Critical Reflections: Kay Khan at Thirteen Moons Gallery", Jon Carver
AMERICAN CRAFT, August/September , "Gallery"
R_*ENWICK GALLERY, SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART MUSEUM*_ live auction, Washington, DC
COLOR AND COMPOSITION FOR THE CREATIVE QUILTER, Katie Pasquini Masopust & Brett Barker, C&T Publishing
CRAFTS REPORT, May, "Crafts Have Rich History and Promising Future in the City of Brotherly Love: Regional Profile, Special Focus: Philadelphia", Stephen Davis