Zehra Khan: Fakeries

Tiger Strikes Asteroid Chicago is pleased to announce its first artist residency. We have invited Zehra Khan to use our space as her studio for one and half months. Throughout her residency, Zehra will hold two open studios per week on Thursdays and Saturdays, and there will be a public reading in the space. The residency will culminate in an exhibition that brings together work from Zehra’s residency with recent work.

As an American and Pakistani artist with a history of deep material engagement in her work, Zehra Khan challenges perceptions of women’s work and the craft cultures of her heritage. Zehra’s Idaho relatives were avid quilters and made practical crafts/arts for their homes. Her Pakistani family exposed her to an aesthetic of abstract patterning and maximalism: everything from carpets to buses is covered in adornment. Through the simulation of quilts and embroidery with materials like glue and paper, Zehra celebrates the labors of craft-making while exploring the question of how far we can push tradition before it breaks down and loses authenticity, becoming “fake.”  

A recent Chicago transplant, this will be Zehra Khan’s first solo presentation in Chicago.

Zehra Khan (b. 1983) is an American and a Pakistani born in Indonesia. She was raised in Paris, Switzerland, and the United States. Zehra received an MFA from the Massachusetts College of Art & Design at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown and a BS from Skidmore College. Khan has attended numerous art residencies including Ox-Bow, Yaddo, Studios of Key West, I-Park, Vermont Studio Center, and Art Space Sonahmoo in Korea. Zehra is a current participant of the NYC Drawing Center Viewing Program and the deCordova Museum Corporate Lending Program in Lincoln, MA. She co-authored the children’s book, A Sunny Day for Flowers, published by Soberscove Press. Zehra is based in Chicago. For more info, please visit zehrakhan.com.