Misha Kahn
Designer
Misha Kahn has emerged as one of the leading creative voices of his generation. Through a wildly imaginative approach that embraces spontaneity and non-conformity, Kahn allows the illogical and the irreverent to take over his entire process. He employs everything from lo-fi and ad hoc techniques—such as improvisational molds and collage—to virtual reality and other high-tech tools. Born in Duluth, Minnesota in 1989, Kahn graduated from Rhode Island School of Design in 2011 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Furniture Design. Soon after, he gained recognition when he was featured in the Museum of Arts and Design’s Biennial (2014). Unafraid to push boundaries, Kahn is determined to question the accepted way of doing things, driving him to self-invent, adapt, and further processes in a myriad of mediums including metalwork, glass, wood, textiles, ceramic, bronze casting, fiberglass, and cement. Voracious to upend traditional techniques, he embraces the opportunity to learn from masters in their respective crafts. Kahn’s acclaimed woven Scrappy series (since 2015), is the result of a collaboration with Gone Rural, a female group of traditional weavers based in Swaziland. His work has been exhibited internationally and is in the permanent collection of museums such as the Corning Museum of Glass, NY; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX and Speed Museum of Art, Louisville, KY. Kahn lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
Exhibited at Design Miami/ Basel 2021 Tingle Tangle, Mingle Mangle is the manifestation of Misha Kahn’s Claymation language—other-worldly soft volumes scaffolded with slender rods. The large-scale work brings together Kahn’s interest in Surrealism and a research-based conviction that soft bodies should not reside amongst rigid, rectilinear forms. Kahn’s wish was to make the inherently rigid metal to appear liquid, dynamic, and alive. Amongst the abstracted fantastical forms, one might make out crab-like legs that allow the piece to skitter away or a fleshy tentacle on which delicately balances a shiny pearl. Such potential subconscious cues seem likely coming from a sponge-like mind that melds natural and concocted oddities. Two practical features are integrated: a soft-focused mirror and a catchall for keys, change, and all the other detritus of the day. Kahn likens the integrated funnel-shaped vide-poche to a “visual blackhole”. Tingle Tangle, Mingle Mangle is featured in the permanent collection of the Dallas Museum of Art, where Kahn participated in the 2019 group show speechless: different by design.
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