Sean Kelly, New York
February 27 – April 11, 2026
Opening reception: Thursday, February 26, 6-8pm
Sean Kelly is delighted to announce Kristy Chan’s first solo exhibition in New York. Short Letter, Long Farewell presents a new body of paintings and drawings that meditate on movement, longing, and the quiet intensity of everyday experience. There will be an opening reception on Thursday, February 26 from 6-8pm. The artist will be present.
Born in Hong Kong and living in London, Kristy Chan approaches America as both a real and imagined place. The exhibition takes its title from Peter Handke’s novel Short Letter, Long Farewell, and unfolds as a reflective letter to America, the promise of renewal, and the uncertainty that shadows new beginnings. In Handke’s book, America is a place where the possibility of a new life exists alongside the remnants of an old one, a tension that resonates throughout Chan’s work. Several artworks in the exhibition draw directly from literature and cultural memory as frameworks for understanding the self, while others are rooted in moments of observation and lived experience. Together, these approaches give form to themes of inheritance and displacement, and the ongoing negotiation of belonging, memory, and selfhood.
Painted between 2024 and 2026, her canvases are inspired by fleeting encounters; a sunset, a walk through the park, or a remembered conversation, inviting a pause to recognize the beauty in the ordinary. In a moment marked by political, social, and environmental flux, the exhibition asks us to remain attentive to what is still luminous and human.
Chan’s practice moves fluidly between figuration and abstraction, combining densely applied oil and oil stick with a distinctly intuitive, improvisational approach. As writer Izzy Bilkus observed, Chan’s work carries “a playfulness… but also an echo of the same energy that animates her paintings; a refusal to stagnate.”
Kristy Chan was born in 1997 in Hong Kong and currently lives and works in London. She received her BFA from the Slade School of Fine Art at the University College London, and her MA in Contemporary Art from Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London. Chan’s work has been featured internationally in both solo and group exhibitions.
For inquiries, please email Lauren@skny.com
For media inquiries, please email Adair@skny.com