Wyatt Kahn
14 Mar - 18 Apr 2015
© Wyatt Kahn
‘Be Right There’, 2015
Paper on paper on colored pencil and graphite on paper
78.5 x 127 cm; 90 x 137 cm (framed)
Unique
‘Be Right There’, 2015
Paper on paper on colored pencil and graphite on paper
78.5 x 127 cm; 90 x 137 cm (framed)
Unique
WYATT KAHN
14 March - 18 April 2015
A joint exhibition between Tanya Leighton, Berlin and Adrian Rosenfeld, Los Angeles
Tanya Leighton is pleased to announce a solo exhibition by the American artist Wyatt Kahn, his first in Germany. Kahn’s exhibition comprises two drawings and three paintings, continuing the artist’s investigation into materiality, painterly form, along with methods of working on paper. Kahn’s paintings are assemblages of cut and shaped MDF panels, which have been covered with twice stretched fabric. The artist joins these forms, employing the gaps between panels as compositional elements in a visual space that incorporates both the painting itself and the wall on which the canvas is hung. The works on view mark a development in Kahn’s practice: his hand-drawn patterned fabrics now incorporate two sets of motifs, which, when paired with the composition of each painting, create a surprising juxtaposition of objects and sounds.
All of the works in the exhibition derive their imagery from linguistic pairings, or duets – two distinct objects which both make the same sound. In the painting 'Sunny Side Up', a frying pan and the sun are pictured, the imagery representing both alludes to an onomatopoeic parallel: both things ‘sizzle’. The two drawings on view are paired as another duet, both evoking the sound ‘buzz’. Kahn outlines the objects and forms of his drawings using a thick waxed graphite pencil, which leaves a raised line on the surface of the paper that recalls the recessed seams of the works on canvas. Similar patterned motifs fill the spaces delineated by the artist’s marks, veiled under a thin sheet of fiber paper.
Wyatt Kahn (b. 1983, New York) lives and works in New York. He has presented solo shows at LA><ART, Los Angeles; Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich; and T293, Rome. He has been featured in group exhibitions internationally, including Rachel Uffner Gallery, New York; Bortolami Gallery, New York; Dallas Museum of Art; and as part of ReMap 4 in Athens, among others. He received his BFA from the School of the Art Institute in Chicago in 2006 and his MFA from Hunter College in New York in 2012. In 2015, he will have a show at the Contemporary Art Museum, Saint Louis and a project at the Performa Biennial. His solo show at Tanya Leighton is organized in collaboration with Adrian Rosenfeld, Los Angeles.
14 March - 18 April 2015
A joint exhibition between Tanya Leighton, Berlin and Adrian Rosenfeld, Los Angeles
Tanya Leighton is pleased to announce a solo exhibition by the American artist Wyatt Kahn, his first in Germany. Kahn’s exhibition comprises two drawings and three paintings, continuing the artist’s investigation into materiality, painterly form, along with methods of working on paper. Kahn’s paintings are assemblages of cut and shaped MDF panels, which have been covered with twice stretched fabric. The artist joins these forms, employing the gaps between panels as compositional elements in a visual space that incorporates both the painting itself and the wall on which the canvas is hung. The works on view mark a development in Kahn’s practice: his hand-drawn patterned fabrics now incorporate two sets of motifs, which, when paired with the composition of each painting, create a surprising juxtaposition of objects and sounds.
All of the works in the exhibition derive their imagery from linguistic pairings, or duets – two distinct objects which both make the same sound. In the painting 'Sunny Side Up', a frying pan and the sun are pictured, the imagery representing both alludes to an onomatopoeic parallel: both things ‘sizzle’. The two drawings on view are paired as another duet, both evoking the sound ‘buzz’. Kahn outlines the objects and forms of his drawings using a thick waxed graphite pencil, which leaves a raised line on the surface of the paper that recalls the recessed seams of the works on canvas. Similar patterned motifs fill the spaces delineated by the artist’s marks, veiled under a thin sheet of fiber paper.
Wyatt Kahn (b. 1983, New York) lives and works in New York. He has presented solo shows at LA><ART, Los Angeles; Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich; and T293, Rome. He has been featured in group exhibitions internationally, including Rachel Uffner Gallery, New York; Bortolami Gallery, New York; Dallas Museum of Art; and as part of ReMap 4 in Athens, among others. He received his BFA from the School of the Art Institute in Chicago in 2006 and his MFA from Hunter College in New York in 2012. In 2015, he will have a show at the Contemporary Art Museum, Saint Louis and a project at the Performa Biennial. His solo show at Tanya Leighton is organized in collaboration with Adrian Rosenfeld, Los Angeles.