Specifications:

• Title: Khatt
• Artist: Hanif Kureshi
• Year: 2025
• Edition Type: Limited edition print of 75
• Medium: Digital print on 200 GSM archival paper
• Dimensions: 23.4 x 16.5 in

Authenticated by Gallery XXL

About the Artist:

A multidisciplinary artist and designer, Hanif Kureshi’s practice explored the intersection of art, typography, and street culture. Deeply committed to making art accessible to wider audiences, he absorbed the language of the streets into his work – transforming everyday signs, phrases, and visual codes into compositions that balanced irony, beauty, and social reflection. Often combining multiple media within a single piece, his works operated as acts of both memory-making and cultural preservation.

Hanif’s ongoing HandPaintedType Project sought to document and revive India’s vernacular street typography—a distinctive and rapidly vanishing aspect of local visual culture. Through this and his broader practice, he positioned Indian scripts as dynamic, living forms capable of contemporary expression and abstraction.

As Co-Founder and Artistic Director of St+art India Foundation, Hanif played a pivotal role in transforming the Indian urban landscape through large-scale murals, public art interventions, and the creation of art districts across cities. His vision brought emerging artists into the streets and redefined how public art engages with communities. In parallel, he co-founded Guerrilla Art & Design, XXL Collective, and Gallery XXL, through which he expanded his creative explorations into design, curation, and spatial experimentation.

Hanif's extensive oeuvre as an independent street artist also included widely acclaimed murals, installations, and mixed media projects. Notable examples include the Swarovski Mela in Austria (2017), featuring a HandPaintedType installation curated by Manish Arora; Chakraview at the First London Design Biennale (2016), presented in collaboration with Sumant Jayakrishnan and the India Design Forum at Somerset House; the Pavilion Design for India at Grand Palais, Ephemera, Paris (2021); Les Extatiques : La Défense in Paris (2018), curated by Fabrice Bousteau; Triennale Design Museum, New India Designscape, Milan (2012); and COMMERCIAL BREAK, Garage Projects, 54th Venice Biennale (2011). In 2016, GQ magazine named Hanif as one of the 50 most influential young Indians. Hanif’s works were last exhibited at Wildstyle Gallery in Uppsala, Sweden in June 2024 before his passing in September 2024.

About Gallery XXL x JOSMO:

The collaboration between Gallery XXL and JOSMO is conceived to further a shared mission  to democratise and expand the experience of art and design. The program offers artworks and furniture objects that are both affordable and accessible, while also nurturing experimental practices that push conventional boundaries. By focusing on broadening engagement with a diverse audience, the collaboration seeks to challenge the often-formal and sometimes intimidating nature of art viewership typically associated with traditional gallery structures. This program is dedicated to fostering a contemporary and dynamic dialogue that weaves together art, design, and the viewer, effectively reimagining and revitalising how these creative elements integrate into lived and everyday spaces.