NADA Miami​ Fair - 18th Edition

ONLINE and ON VIEW | BASEERA KHAN

1 - 5 December​ 2020​

We are pleased to present BASEERA KHAN | NEW SUITE of PRINTS + PSYCHEDELIC PRAYER RUGS at the 18th Edition of NADA Miami both ONLINE and ON VIEW at the printshop gallery by appointment.

For an appointment, please email: essye@efanyc.org.

Events (via Zoom)

Sat. December 5th, 3PM EST REGISTER HERE

In Conversation: BASEERA KHAN + JAZMINE CATASÚS, Printshop Coordinator

We are pleased to present Baseera Khan's New Suite of Prints for the 18th Edition of NADA Miami taking place ONLINE and ON VIEW at the printshop's gallery.

Working in editions, Khan has described the "power of the multiple" as that which privileges collective bodies; reveals, even questions distribution and access through the everyday, mass produced, or some call the "found" object.

As the prayer rug is used for worship, laid between Earth and kind, Khan often shows the complete edition of the Psychedelic Prayer Rugs stacked together or rolled up as one would encounter them in a mosque, temple or factory. Handknit from their familial community in Kashmir, screen print is used as a guide for the rug makers' patterns. Khan's use of the technique in their new prints was specific in uncovering this embroidery process, and return to the medium of printmaking as a material reference from printed protest signs and text.

NEW Prints

Made during the second half of 2020, after the COVID-19 Pandemic rendered New York "on pause," Khan was able to work in-person to proof with printer, John Andrews, where as with the rugs, decisions are made through a digital apparatus either from cellphone calls, WhatsApp, or Illustrator files. Khan use of collaboration is both experimental and necessary with skilled craftsmen to actualize the works.

Khan describes this work as part of their “dignity” series--that which upholds political significance for sovereignty and liberation. In the work, ACT UP the famous pink triangle from Gran Fury's AIDS Awareness campaign SILENCE = DEATH shifts to a two-toned pyramid; the yellow frame is taken directly from the cover of National Geographic; finally, an Urdu poem remarkably brings together two separate cultures and periods in time with the similar urgent statement: the voice is powerful, one must use it and not be silent.

The color in I AM A BODY (Original) was taken from a scan of Khan's skin tone by a makeup company's concealer match. The channeling of information between physical and digital shows the humor, yet also danger of data discrepancies. Khan re-plays the makeup concealer match, and amuses the viewer by expanding the color variation to a line of five “customized” selections.

As the work references the famous civil rights sign I AM A MAN, Khan's updated signage is a portrait of our time, as people are fighting globally just as those holding signs did at Memphis Sanitation Strike 1968, for a demand for basic human rights.

For more information, please email: Essye Klempner essye@efanyc.org.

Baseera Khan is a performance and visual artist based in Brooklyn, New York. Their work sublimates colonial histories through performance and sculpture in order to map geographies of the future. Khan's latest solo exhibition, Snake Skin, opened at the end of 2019 at Simone Subal, New York. They have exhibited in numerous locations such as Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism, Munich, Germany, Jenkins Johnson Projects (2019), Sculpture Center (2018), Aspen Museum (2017), Participant Inc. (2017). Khan's performance has premiered at several locations including Whitney Museum of American Art, Art POP Montreal International Music Festival. Khan recently completed a 6 week performance residency at The Kitchen NYC (2020) and was an artist in residence at Pioneer Works (2018-19), Abrons Art Center (2016-17), was an International Travel Fellow to Jerusalem/Ramallah through Apexart (2015), and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (2014). Khan was a recipient of the BRIC Colene Brown Art Prize and the Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors Grant in 2019, was granted by both NYSCA/NYFA and Art Matters in 2018. Their works are part of several public permanent collections including the Solomon R. Guggenheim, Kadist, San Francisco, and the Walker Art Center, MN. Khan's work is published in 4Columns, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Artforum, Art in America, BOMB, Brooklyn Rail, and TDR Drama Review. Khan is an adjunct professor of sculpture, performance, and critical theory, and received an M.F.A. from Cornell University (2012) and a B.F.A. from the University of North Texas (2005).

About​ NADA​ Miami

The New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA), is pleased to present NADA Miami, the organization’s annual flagship art fair, to take place in in a reimagined format, December 1–5, 2020.

The 18th edition of the fair will showcase an international series of presentations from a diverse roster of 47 NADA Members and 27 first-time exhibitors for a total of 97 galleries from 44 cities, both in gallery spaces and online. The fair features gallery hubs in multiple locations, including the Bay Area, Brussels, Chicago, Detroit, Lima, Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Riga, Tokyo, Toronto, and Warsaw.

NADA Miami remains dedicated to celebrating rising talents from around the globe. Visitors of the 2020 fair are invited to experience gallery presentations in person in their local city, and discover the best of contemporary art online through a newly-designed digital platform. Accompanying the fair, the virtual programming series showcases conversations and performances from the defining voices of contemporary art and culture.