Wajid Khan (artist)

Wajid Khan (born 10 March 1981) is an Indian artist, portraitist and sculptor. He is specialized in carving canvas with nails. Khan is famous for his various art forms like shadow art, metal art, stone art, kinetic art, and "nail art". His shadow art of Vallabhbhai Patel had garnered him attention and praises for his technique and was later placed under Madhya Pradesh's administration. Khan's nail art had been mentioned in the Guinness Book of World Records and Limca Book of Records.

One of his artworks is part of the Rashtrapati Bhavan, the official home of the President of India. He also has been awarded by the former president of India for his contribution towards art, late APJ Abdul Kalam.

Early life
Khan was born on 10 March 1981, in a small village Mandsaur district of Madhya Pradesh state of India.

Inventions
In 1995, at the age of 14 he invented the world's smallest electric iron. After this invention, he went on to invent a water theft device and a centralized touch-activated switch for household appliances. He also created a painting on canvas, which was apparently world's first 3D painting. He has also created a robot and then again, in 2003 he invented a Light sensor & Gear Locking.

From being a rugby player, animator and inventor, Wajid has also carved his niche in doing things differently. Now, he is a famous nail-portraitist. Among his other works includes 200 of his inventions. He invented world's smallest 'electric-Iron', just when he was studying in V standard. It was named in the Guinness Book of World Records. He has been awarded three time by the late president Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam.

Wajid Khan India is making the tallest statue of Swami Vivekanand in that would be installed in Uttar Pradesh. The statue made of ashtdhatu (alloy) will be 170-feet tall and will be installed either in Lucknow or Agra.

As per Aaj Tak his popularity is not only famous in India but in other countries also.

Art with Iron Nail


Wajid Khan India owns a patent on nail art or nail painting, in which iron nails are hammered into a hard acrylic sheet to create a pointillist-style image. In the year 2005 he completed his first nail painting of Mahatma Gandhi. It took him three years to finish it. He has also created Nail portraits of Mother Mary, Lord Jesus, Dhirubhai Ambani, Salman Khan, Raj Thackeray, Rahul Gandhi, Sai Baba of Shirdi, Kaaba, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, and Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum.

On 17 February 2014 an exhibition of Wajid Khan's nail portraits was held in Mumbai, which was attended by Bollywood personalities like Dalip Tahil, Ashmit Patel, Chahat Khanna, and Seema Chauhan.

Auto-parts sculpture
In 2014, Khan created a sculpture from junk and automobile spare parts depicting a racing horse with its jockey. The creation is made using spare parts of different vehicles like Mercedes Benz, Hero Honda, Passion Plus bike. This is a culmination of metal art, unique art, and creative art as Khan uses all of these simultaneously to create his masterpieces.

Talking to Hindustan Times, Khan said, The idea of creating a painting using the spare parts of automobiles came after I saw unused and mundane things lying in junkyards and then and there I thought why not use them in my next creation.

Art with medical equipment
Wajid India not only used his art as a medium to render happiness or express his emotions but he has also played a significant role in awakening the society. In 2014, he became a part of Save Girl Child campaign and with medical equipment, he created an artifact of an innocent crying girl. This depicts that a scissor which is used in stitching the wounds, and a stethoscope which is used to measure heartbeats, is often the reason for the death of an innocent. Wajid has fearlessly shown this reality with the help of medical equipment and has given a message to stop foeticide.

Stone Art
Stone art is a raw form of art known to be very precise yet very simple, there has to be a pre-notion of how to place the stones in tandem to create what the artist wants to showcase. Stone art has to be pre-carved before placing to its exact position. Mr. Khan has the ability and skill with patience to create art from stones. Each stone is selected differently and placed with fine adjustments just as the portrait made by Mr. Khan of Geoffrey Bawa of Sri Lanka. It is delicate and needs utmost concentration which can be seen in the portraits finesse.

Shadow Art
Shadow art is all about most of the purest form of imagination aligned with the perfection of the finest detail. In the case of Mr. Khan, the tribute to Sardar Patel where he used all the mechanical parts of automobiles as it signifies the iron fist he had to unify India from the princely states. He quoted

"The reason I chose shadow art is that I believe that every human being grows in someone's shadow. Similarly, our country has grown in the shadow of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel".

This shows the approach of Mr. Khan towards his art and the sensitivity and detailing required to fulfill such daunting tasks. He again quoted

"Since he is known as the Iron Man, I thought of using parts made out of iron. Putting these parts together, I was reminded of the time when in 1947 he united the country".

It took Khan over two and a half months to complete this masterpiece to which the Governments of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and African government want to place the installation.

Iron Nail Art
Wajid Khan has developed his own skill in nail painting in which each iron nail is placed very precisely at its place with a well calculated and well-executed plan. In 2005, he completed his first iron nail painting of Mahatma Gandhi. It took him three years to finish it. Wajid Khan owns a patent on iron nail art or iron nail painting, in which iron nails are hammered into a hard acrylic sheet to create a pointillist-style image. He has also created Iron Nail portraits of Mother Mary, Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum, Dhirubhai Ambani, Raj Thackeray, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Rahul Gandhi, Sai Baba of Shirdi, Kaaba, Salman Khan, and Lord Jesus.

On 17 February 2014 an exhibition of Wajid Khan's iron nail portraits was held in Mumbai, which was attended by Bollywood personalities like Dalip Tahil, Ashmit Patel, Chahat Khanna, and Seema Chauhan.

Recognitions/honour

 * Wajid Khan's 'Nail Art' was included in the Limca Book of Records.
 * He invented world's smallest 'electric-Iron', just when he was studying in 5th standard. It was named in the Guinness Book of World Records.
 * He has been awarded thrice by the former president APJ Abdul Kalam.
 * In June 2012, Recognizing his outstanding 'Nail Art', Wajid Khan was named in the Golden Book of World Records (GBWR).
 * He entered in India Book of Records for creating amazing real-like 3D portraits, including portraits of Mahatma Gandhi, Dhirubhai Ambani, Mother Mary and Jesus among others, by hammering iron nails on blank canvas. His portrait of Mahatma Gandhi took a total of eight months and 150,000 nails to get completed.
 * On 4 November 2016, Wajid Khan was invited to deliver a lecture in Aligarh Muslim University,Aligarh organised by Sir Syed Minority Foundation of India and he also shared about his inspirational life story to Aligarh Muslim University students. He also nominated as lifetime member by Sir Syed Minority Foundation of India.
 * On 8 March 2015, Wajid Khan was invited to deliver a lecture in IIM Indore, on the subject of Innovation in Management. He also shared his story to students from being a simple village boy to a record-holder nail-artist.
 * He delivered a guest lecture at two-day Inter University Arts & Crafts Exhibition organized in Lovely Professional University. Analyzing 800+ art-works of LPU students and from 200 other participating institutions displayed at the exhibition center, Wajid Khan forwarded important pieces of advice to the budding artists.
 * Was invited as Guest of Honour at Manav Rachna International University's four-day premier architectural convention Zonal NASA 2016.
 * In January 2017,Wajid Khan participated in the 2nd India Art Festival held in New Delhi, India.

Other
Reportedly, In April 2015, Wajid Khan was invited to interact with young artists in Automobile Art Festival, held in ITC Rajputana, Jaipur. He also took workshop for students. On 13 August 2016 Wajid Khan was invited by WittyFeed in an organized event named 'One Independence day'.

Social cause and philanthropy
A day before World Environment Day in June 2016, Wajid Khan painted the dried street trees in Indore and spread message to save environment. Wajid Khan conducted workshops and taught spoon art to street children free of cost to make a living and earn their bread and butter.