Star signs: Misha Kahn creates a kaleidoscopic world at Friedman Benda
New York’s Friedman Benda gallery plays host to two noteworthy exhibitions this month – ‘Marcel Wanders: Portraits’ and Misha Kahn’s ‘Return of Saturn, Coming of Age in the 21st Century’. The two prove to be quite the bookends: Wanders, the well-established designer whose restrained show is rendered in a dark palette becomes a foil for Kahn, who, at 26, is very much gaining a name of his own, with a very kaleidoscopic show he himself describes as something ‘meant to encourage comfort with one’s own mental chaos’.
The product of Kahn’s imagination is a collection of everyday objects: stools, mirrors, lamps and tables. Each is brightly colored, and his choice of material steers far from convention. He has made a cabinet, for example, from banana leaves, grasses, cactus, bone and lavimisu. And it shows. The Wild One China Cabinet smells like a stable. The show’s pièce de résistance, though, is The Slippery Feel of Inevitability, a hand-woven mohair tapestry that depicts a landscape made of Jell-O molds – again, brightly colored and apparently underwater.
The subtitle, ‘Return of Saturn’, speaks to Kahn’s personal self-reflections. Pointing to astrological tradition, he explains that it takes 27 years for Saturn to return to the same position where it had been at the moment of a person’s birth, making it a fruitful time to consider one’s life, a place he considers himself to be now.
This is not an art-in-a-white-box kind of show. Kahn created an immersive environment, covering the floors in plywood tiles and the walls in a custom-made wallpaper depicting oranges at various stages of having been peeled. The wallpaper itself is also torn and partially peeled. ‘I always thought peeling an orange was like ripping wallpaper,’ he suggests. As for why he chose oranges? ‘I thought they were like cosmic belly buttons. And I kind of liked the connection with the Medicis.’
INFORMATION
'Misha Kahn: Return of Saturn, Coming of Age in the 21st Century' is on view until 9 April. For more details, visit Friedman Benda's website
Photography: Andrew Meredith. Courtesy the artist and Friedman Benda
ADDRESS
Friedman Benda
515 West 26th Street
New York, NY 10001
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox
-
Aindrea Emelife on bringing the Nigerian Pavilion to life at the Venice Biennale 2024
Curator Aindrea Emelife has spearheaded a new wave of contemporary artists at the Venice Biennale’s second-ever Nigerian Pavilion. Here, she talks about what the world needs to learn about African art
By Ugonna-Ora Owoh Published
-
All aboard: Azimut moor a yacht in the heart of Milan
With Azimut's Mooring by the Moon, Michele De Lucchi and AMDL Circle provide insight into the philsophy of the Seadeck Series with an immersive installation at Bagni Misteriosi
By Cristina Kiran Piotti Published
-
A low-energy farmhouse provides a rural escape in North Carolina
This low-energy farmhouse is a net zero architectural re-set for a Californian client, an East Coast relocation for a more engaged and low-key lifestyle
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
The Met’s ‘The Real Thing: Unpacking Product Photography’ dissects the avant-garde in early advertising
A new exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York explores the role of product photography and advertising in shaping the visual language of modernism
By Zoe Whitfield Published
-
Tony Notarberardino’s Chelsea Hotel Portraits preserve a slice of bygone New York life
‘Tony Notarberardino: Chelsea Hotel Portraits, 1994-2010’, on show at New York’s ACA Galleries, is the photographer’s ode to the storied hotel he calls home and its eclectic clientele
By Hannah Silver Published
-
‘LA Gun Club’: artist Jane Hilton on who’s shooting who
‘LA Gun Club’, an exhibition by Jane Hilton at New York’s Palo Gallery, explores American gun culture through a study of targets and shooters
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Detroit Institute of Arts celebrates Black cinema
‘Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898-1971’ at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) brings lost or forgotten films, filmmakers and performers to a contemporary audience
By Anne Soward Published
-
BLUM marks 30 years of Japanese contemporary art in America
BLUM will take ‘Thirty Years: Written with a Splash of Blood’ to its New York space in September 2024, continuing its celebration of Japanese contemporary art in America
By Timothy Anscombe-Bell Published
-
Todd Gray’s sculptural photography collages defy dimension, linearity and narrative
In Todd Gray’s New York exhibition, he revisits his 40-year archive, fragmented into elaborated frames that open doors for new readings
By Osman Can Yerebakan Published
-
Frieze LA 2024 guide: the art, gossip and buzz
Our Frieze LA 2024 guide includes everything you need to know and see in and around the fair
By Renée Reizman Published
-
New York artist Christopher Astley showcases an alternative natural world
At Martos Gallery in New York, Christopher Astley’s paintings evoke an alternative natural world and the chaos of warfare (until 16 March 2024)
By Tianna Williams Published