Fawad Khan, Photo: Alfred Maskeroni for Popcycle Magazine

Born in Tripoli, Fawad Khan has lived in Pakistan, Baltimore, and now New York. His environs tremendously impact his artwork; his oeuvre includes drawings with ink and gouache, paintings, wall drawings that incorporate video and installations.

"Fractured Reverie" show at Lu Magnus, installation view

His powerful work, which has most often included subject matter related to suicide bombings and the violence that has become prevalent and associated with the area he and his family are from, provides a cathartic release for the artist. We are bombarded with this violent imagery every day in the media and Fawad’s art provides a meditation on violence. I first encountered (and wrote about) his work at a group show at Smack Mellon in DUMBO. I loved the energy and the innovation of the wall drawing combined with a video element. Here is a link to a video/wall work called “Fractured Reverie” from his last show at Lu Magnus. http://vimeo.com/26705463 Part of the beauty of his work, to me, is that it reaches viewers on multiple levels. I get sheer enjoyment out of his colorful palette and the dynamism of his compositions.

Two-Thousand-Two Striped, 2007, gouache and ink on paper, 30in x 22in

I bring my own personal experience to his work. One drawing with a 2002 BMW makes me nostalgic for my first car. But the work is so much more than its aesthetics. Fawad brings his own personal experiences to his art. Repeated imagery such as chili peppers (from his mother’s cooking), fatigues and camouflage (familiar images from his youth), and orange construction cones (prevalent in his current home) find their way into his work. The work is a real combination of personal memory and political commentary. He puts it all out there, perhaps some of that has to do with his training as an illustrator. This is something he is moving away from. He is experimenting with using a little more restraint and not giving everything away to the viewer.

Anxieties of Catastrophic Proportions, 2011, gouache and ink on paper, 60in x 40in

Anxieties of Catastrophic Proportion detail

Though cars are shown in various stages of destruction, Fawad takes away the macabre elements of car bombings like flames, leaving the essentials. He then deconstructs a lot of the imagery playing on his love of color and passion for making line look like form. The vehicles he uses are often based on photos from his travels adding another personal layer to his work. Fawad began working on a small scale because of the size of his studio but as his desire to work larger grew, he began to envision site-specific projects. This is how the first wall drawings came to be.

Sindh Super Highway, 2009, etching, archival inkjet, spit bite, screenprint, and collage, 17.75" x 23.75" plate, 24.25" x 29.5". Edition: 8

In 2008 Fawad completed a Lower East Side Printshop residency and made a suite of four works, each one representing the four geographic locations he has lived in. He was anxious to do work that echoed his drawings but was also somehow different; he decided on copperplate etchings and aquatint. The subjects are a Peugeot in Tripoli –his birthplace, a collage of appropriated imagery combined to make a military truck with cargo from his time in Pakistan, a Ford pickup truck to represent suburban Maryland, and two Vespas with construction area symbols such as orange cones and netting that symbolized his experience of NY in August of 2001, when he arrived. The collaged military truck creation spurred an interest in the medium and what were originally studies for larger works became “little meditations” and works in their own right.

Cone Collision I and II, 2010, collage and ink on paper, 11in x 13in each

Fawad now has a desire to take just a couple of elements and have them dialogue with each other. He continues to grow as an artist and he is concerned with producing a body of work that has longevity. He surrounds himself with art he loves by those who have most influenced him: Leon Golub, Amy Sillman, Nancy Spero, and Ryan McGuiness.

In Soldier Years, 2011, gouache and ink on paper, 60in x 40in

Fawad Khan is represented by Lu Magnus in New York. To learn more about his work visit his website at:

www.fawadkhan.com