Ikon presents the first major survey exhibition of British–Indian artist Balraj Khanna (1939–2024), bringing together more than 35 paintings made over six decades. The exhibition offers the most comprehensive overview to date of Khanna’s remarkable career as a painter, writer and curator.

Coinciding with the 25th anniversary of Khanna’s landmark commission for the Birmingham Hippodrome safety curtain, Astral Dance (2001), the exhibition traces the evolution of Khanna’s distinctive vision of abstraction, shaped by his youth in the Punjab region of India, his life in post-war Britain, and an enduring fascination with the natural world.

A self-taught artist, Khanna witnessed the Partition of India in 1947 before relocating to London in 1962. Following a road accident in 1965, a period of recuperation in Metz, France, proved pivotal to his practice. Immersed in the surrounding Forêt de Saint-Bernard near Metz, France, Khanna began to develop a highly individual form of abstraction, marked by layered surfaces, the use of line and string, organic and geometric forms, and an acute sense of spatial rhythm.

At Ikon, rarely seen works from the 1960s and 1970s – including paintings inspired by the forests of Metz – are shown alongside large-scale compositions from the 1970s to the 2000s that reflect childhood memories, diasporic identity, postcolonial politics and the lasting imprint of Partition. Mixed media works from the 1980s through to the 2010s highlight Khanna’s innovative use of sand, spray, stencil and mark-making, revealing a visual language that is both sensorial and rigorously constructed.

This exhibition is generously supported by lead supporter Bagri Foundation, with additional support from ai. gallery, the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, Jhaveri Contemporary, and the The Estate of Balraj Khanna.