Kristy Chan

Short Letter, Long Farewell

Sean Kelly, New York

February 27 – April 11, 2026

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.

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.

Kristy Chan - Short Letter, Long Farewell - Exhibitions - Sean Kelly Gallery

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.

"I don't like when artworks feel like they're easily reproduced. I think that's why I gravitated towards abstraction, because it's so hard to imitate brush strokes. It's that lack of control that I really like."
- Kristy Chan

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.

"It’s very much about the human experience of having various thoughts simultaneously, all jumping at each other, one screaming louder in your head for an hour then onto the next one." - Kristy Chan

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

Installation Views

Installation Views Thumbnails

Installation view of Kristy Chan: Short Letter, Long Farewell at Sean Kelly, New York, February 27 – April 11, 2026, Photography: Jason Wyche, Courtesy: Sean Kelly, New York