
Like Music in the Blood: Eight artists explore the body beyond representation
4 August 2026 • Mark Westall
Thaddaeus Ropac London brings together eight contemporary artists for Like Music in the Blood, a group exhibition exploring the body
Suleman Aqeel Khilji is a contemporary artist whose multidisciplinary practice explores memory, migration, identity and the evolving relationship between people, place and history. Working across painting, drawing, installation and mixed media, Khilji creates layered works that combine personal narratives with broader social and cultural questions. His practice reflects on the ways histories are constructed, inherited and transformed, often drawing upon architectural forms, landscapes and everyday materials to examine the intersections of individual experience and collective memory.
Born in Pakistan, Khilji’s work is informed by the cultural, political and geographical complexities of South Asia while engaging with universal themes of displacement, belonging and transformation. His compositions frequently juxtapose abstraction with recognisable forms, allowing fragments of architecture, pattern and landscape to emerge through richly textured surfaces. This balance between representation and abstraction creates works that invite contemplation rather than offering fixed interpretations, encouraging viewers to consider how memory is continually reshaped over time.
Material experimentation is central to Khilji’s practice. Through layered mark-making, subtle shifts in colour and the accumulation of surface, his works evoke the traces left by lived experience, suggesting landscapes that are simultaneously physical and psychological. Rather than presenting history as static or complete, he reveals it as something fluid—constructed through remembrance, loss and cultural exchange.
Khilji has exhibited internationally, developing a practice that bridges local histories with global contemporary concerns. His work contributes to ongoing conversations around identity, migration and the ways artists can navigate complex cultural narratives through visual language. By combining poetic abstraction with thoughtful engagement with place and memory, Suleman Aqeel Khilji creates works that resonate across cultures, offering nuanced reflections on belonging, heritage and the enduring connections between people and their environments.

4 August 2026 • Mark Westall
Thaddaeus Ropac London brings together eight contemporary artists for Like Music in the Blood, a group exhibition exploring the body

23 July 2026 • Mark Westall
Suleman Aqeel Khilji is a contemporary artist whose multidisciplinary practice explores memory, migration, identity and collective history

18 May 2026 • Mark Westall
Christie’s and the Arts Council Collection celebrate 80 years of the Collection bringing together works by David Hockney, Sonia Boyce, Peter Doig