Karim Ahmed Khan at Pristine Contemporary

Karim Ahmed Khan will present a solo exhibition at Pristine Contemporary, New Delhi, opening in 05 November, 2026 and running until 04 December, 2026. The exhibition brings together his recent charcoal drawings, works that reflect on deforestation, climate change and the quiet capacity of the natural world to recover.

Charcoal is his primary medium, and the choice is deliberate. As it is produced by burning wood, charcoal carries within it the history of the tree it came from. Khan uses it to draw trees, returning the material to its source and creating a metaphor for the cycle of life, loss and renewal. Drawing on the techniques of miniature painting, he builds his images slowly, in careful layers, on wasli and paper. He then adds gouache to introduce sprouting leaves and flowers, small signs of new life that emerge from burnt trunks and branches.

Fissures appear throughout the work, drawing on Rumi’s idea that wounds are the places through which light can enter. Karim has spoken of how years of news about wildfires, conflict and the pandemic left him searching for patience and hope. His drawings acknowledge damage without surrendering to it. Instead, they suggest that healing, for the land and for the people who live on it, remains possible.

For this exhibition, the gallery will be transformed into a minimal, pared-back space. Clean white walls, open floors and generous spacing between works will allow each drawing to be seen on its own terms. The restrained setting invites visitors to slow down and look closely at the depth of the charcoal and the delicate details held within it.

Karim’s work has been exhibited widely in Pakistan and internationally, including at Lahore Biennale 03, the Aga Khan Centre Gallery in London, the Pakistan Pavilion at the Dubai Expo and Guastavino’s in New York. His most recent solo exhibition, And yet, Green, was held at White Wall Gallery, Lahore, in 2026. In 2025, he received the ADA Art Award (3D category) and the ADA Environmental Leadership Award. He won the Nigaah Art Award in the landscape category in 2024 and the Arjumand Painting Prize in 2021, the same year in which he was nominated for the Sovereign Asian Art Prize. In 2026, he was selected for the Bourse Résidence d’artistes by the Embassy of France in Pakistan.

Alongside his studio practice, Karim runs a contemporary gallery housed in a 900-year-old building in Ghulkin, in the Hunza Valley.