Khatri Khalid Amin is an artist/ajrakh printer living in Ajrakhpur, in the city of Bhuj, in the Kutch region of Gujarat. He is a graduate of the Kala Raksha Vidhalaya, a design school run by Judy Frater which provides artisans with an education programme that helps them design and make products that suit growing urban markets. The programme encourages artisans to take charge of their own creativity and explore their traditions in a contemporary context. As design education in colleges and universities is not accessible to these artisans, it is a unique programme which was initially taught at the Kala Raksha Vidhalaya (KRV) and is now taught at the Somaiya Kala Vidya. Graduates of the school call themselves artisan-designers/artists.

Khalid Amin comes from a family of ajrakh printers. After attending the KRV he was confident in exploring the possibilities of printing. He has developed a more free, expressive style which has gained him a reputation as an innovative artist resulting in a solo show of his work at the Artisans Gallery, Mumbai in 2010. He has since taken part in other exhibitions including ‘Cotton Exchange’ an exchange between artists in Ahmedabad and Manchester.

This piece reflects his expermentation. ‘Haji Ali’ represents the Haji Ali mosque off the coast of Mumbai which he remembers from his visit to the city when he was a young boy. The ariel view shows the mosque surrounded by water and the walkway which links it to the mainland. The image is framed with more recognisable patterns from traditonal ajrakh designs. Alongside his art work, Khalid Amin continues to do ‘job work’, the more traditional ajrakh printing as this is brings a regular income.