By Kelly Beall
Sculptor Misha Kahn is endlessly inventive, currently appearing in the television show, “The Exhibit: Finding the Next Great Artist” by the Smithsonian and MTV, while simultaneously exhibiting a new show – Staged – at Friedman Benda Los Angeles. Running through June 2nd, the show is set in the gallery’s new 2,800+ sq. ft home, adding an interesting domestic dynamic to the pieces on display. Themes of personal acceptance and loving your own chaos run throughout, including pieces such as the Ammonoid Delta chair, Pig of the Earth sofa, and Hold the Line lamp.
Kahn explained: “Friedman Benda’s new LA space provided the opportunity to show in a more domestic space, loosely suggesting how these disparate suspects might temporarily live together before something goes awry. The works’ internal tensions come to light on their surfaces.”
“These past few years have been about accepting the way I work, learning to love my chaos rather than trying to escape it… and instead welcoming you into my vortex,” shared Kahn. “Some pieces in the show are such an invitation; however, by limiting the result to a particular material, such as in the handwoven mohair of Stephens Tapestry, the resulting piece Swatching Space Time creates a complete bacchanal of media and imaginary digital weaving. Bits of string and crumpled paper mix with VR brushstrokes. A scanned piece of gum clings to a loose thread. This swatch – an expansive carpet by human standards – is but a tiny sample of infinite possibility.”
“After a decade with Friedman Benda, and a few previous outings in LA (at Dries van Noten’s The Little House in 2021 and M+B in 2019), I’ve murdered quite a few things. It felt like it was now time to take a string and carefully tie together all these creative explorations I’d left behind with the goal of hopefully arriving at some kind of closure – which is taking place, a little ‘too conveniently,’ in a house.”
