Listening Homes

In Listening Homes, artist Sumera Khan turns her attention to the quiet interiors that shape our emotional lives. Through a series of intimate oil paintings Khan explores the emotional and psychological weight carried by domestic spaces. 

Textured surfaces, layered light, and familiar everyday details, the work captures personal histories and traces of lived experience within the quiet corners of home. Within these familiar corners, Khan uncovers the subtleties of gendered experience, echoes of memory, and the role of interior environments in shaping our emotional lives.

The exhibition extends beyond the visual into a multisensory encounter. Visitors are invited to listen to recorded stories paired with each painting. Accounts of home, belonging, and memory that animate the scenes on view. A participatory component further invites reflection: a jar labeled “Domestic Spaces” will prompt visitors to contribute their own associations, adding names, objects, and places that resonate with their experiences.

Through painting, sound, and shared reflection, Listening Homes invites viewers to consider how the spaces we live in both hold and shape our emotional landscapes.