Sean Khales, RA is a Middle Eastern American artist based in Brooklyn, NY, working in collage, sculpture, architecture, healing practices, and painting. Their artistry centers on realizing true sanctuary via cross-medium exploration, such as the construction of sculptural forms and community engaged installations, reimagined artifacts and reliquaries, in addition to creative use of collages and painting.
Taking the essence of an organic material to unearth the true nature of finding sanctuary, Sean’s artistic practice is driven by a distillation of the abstract concept of sanctuary into a more tangible, personalized experience for the intended audience via an open conversation between the ideological and the sensory: “What does sanctuary truly feel and mean to us? How does it show up formally on paper, in space, and between us all? What materials and sites lend themselves to unearthing the feeling of sanctuary?”
Originally educated as an architect, Sean Khales earned their Master of Architecture from Rice University after being awarded the Prix Marion Tournon-Branly at the prestigious Ecole de Beaux Arts in Fontainebleau, France. Their subsequent work included designing several cultural centers and museum spaces along with other major buildings and art installations while at OMA NY, SHoP Architects, and UAP Polich Tallix. After successfully attaining their architecture license in the State of New York, they launched Kizy Art Productions to support other artists to realize their own large scale art installations.
Sean brings a playful enthusiasm, kindness and openness that is disarming and inspires confidence in safety when embarking into the creative unknown, especially when engaging others. Their current clients include Nick Cave, Phillip K. Smith III, The Shed NY, Jazmine Hayes, Barbara Cooper, Brian Perry, Dan Shaughnessy and other artists. Past clients have also included Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Bob Faust, Dolce & Gabbana, RIP Germain, Elizabeth Streb, Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, Sculpture Center, David Franklin and others.
Recognizing the importance of protected time for personal creative exploration and experimentation, they began their own artistic practice in earnest in early 2023. Sean Khales’s expanding scale of work is an organic and ever-evolving realization of what it means to build sanctuary across settings: with the introduction of collaborators, in service of practice with other artists, and engaging patrons to more robustly reveal how a true sanctuary comes together in a landscape. Sean Khales’s artistic endeavors represent a growing body of work while currently at an early stage in their career. As much artwork as meditation, their practice aspires to bring sanctuary from the earth and across our bodies in acts that are healing, honor the past, and harness the passion of an embodied human existence.