Keith Khan was born of Indo-Caribbean heritage in Wimbledon, London in 1963. He studied Sculpture at Middlesex University. Khan is known for his extensive work in costume and stage design, notably working on the Queen's Golden Jubilee and the Millennium Dome Opening Ceremony.
Artist, designer and performance artist, Keith Khan was born of Indo-Caribbean heritage in Wimbledon, London in 1963. His parents had moved from Trinidad, then part of the British Empire, to England in the 1950s. He studied Sculpture at Middlesex University, and his career began as a designer for carnivals in Trinidad and the UK, producing work that speaks to what he describes as layered identities: ‘from his families’ distant Indian heritage; being a gay Muslim raised in diverse London; to contemporary phenomenon of cultural confusion’; resulting in ‘highly personal projects, often presented in different locations for an audience as diverse as himself’ (Artist’s Website).
In 1991, together with Ali Zaidi, he co-founded Moti Roti, a multidisciplinary arts organisation that investigated how forms of expression circulate among cultures and sought to foster exchanges among communities in Britain (Moti Roti biography). Between then and 2004, most of the artistic events with which Khan was directly involved were under the auspices of Moti Roti, including notable projects such as Flying Costumes, Floating Tombs performed at Arnolfini, Bristol and Paddington Basin, London (1991). The outdoor spectacle, featuring two 70-foot tall sculptures suspended from cranes, was a collaborative project with Nina Edge, Sasha Kelly, Gino Dando and Betty Vaughan-Richards, winning the Time Out Dance and Performance Award (National Archives). Other Moti Roti projects included Art in Sacred Spaces at St Peter’s de Beauvoir, London (2000), where ‘Car mirrors and steel’ challenged ‘the idea of sacred space’ (Times, 2000), and the celebrations for the Golden Jubilee of HRH Queen Elizabeth II (2002), including Khan’s designs for the Commonwealth Parade and a large, vibrant commonwealth tapestry (Keane, 2002). He was also Costume and 3D Designer for the Opening Ceremony for London's Millennium Dome in 2000 (Pitman and Eade, 1999).
Khan departed Moti Roti in 2004 and subsequently filled a number of senior executive positions, most notably Head of Culture and then Artistic Executive to the 2012 Summer Olympics (2007–10). He was panel member for several high-profile funding bodies, including the Wellcome Trust and spent nine years as a Council Member for Arts Council England. He was Chief Executive of Rich Mix (2004–07), a multi-million pound new-build arts venue in east London, and in 2009 became Member of the Commonwealth Group on Culture and Development (Commonwealth Foundation, 2009). Khan went on to produce digital drawings for books, including drawings and animations inspired by Caribbean folklore. He has also created films from ‘his primary source of displacement’ (Artist’s Website). Sweet and Spicy and Chayatantra were distributed by the BFI in the summer of 2020, and the same year Z was screened by Live Art Development Agency, London. He is also working on digital platforms with animation.
Keith Khan lives and works in London. In the UK public domain, his back catalogue of archive materials and costumes has been in the V&A collection since 2014, and the Moti Roti archive resides with the National Archives at Kew.