Style Without Substance

In his fourth solo-show at Friedman Benda, Style Without Substance, Misha Kahn sets out to “look into the essence of a material and help to style its ‘thingness’ to be apparent to humans.” Rather than using an object to tell a story or express himself, Kahn seeks to tap into the independent spirit of matter, process, and form.

Set off by a psychedelic vision and followed by a two-year quest, Kahn’s exhibition explores making the invisible visible. Aside from semiotics and ascribed meanings, Kahn theorizes that objects and materials have energy, and that if one devises the right circumstances, it can be experienced.

Unique cast aluminum and glass tondos which Kahn calls “portals” set the tone for the show—altering the exterior view of the gallery and casting tinted light inside. Clad in multi-color stretch velvet, a sofa and its accompanying oversized chair Bucatini Shortage of 2021 cheekily acknowledge an expanded take on the two-year interim since Kahn’s last major show. Windswept, a round dining table rendered in seemingly malleable stainless-steel inset with colored glass gems, is a prime example of the fluidity between technology and handcraft that defines Kahn’s practice.

First out of necessity—in the spring of 2020 removed from his Brooklyn studio—Kahn playfully dabbled in virtual reality, eventually gaining technological fluency. Today, his studio assistants are no longer limited to the human variety. A retrofitted auto-industry robot and squad of 3D printers receive neural feedback from their anthropoid counterparts. That objects are intelligent, emotive, and self-directed is not hard to imagine when surveying the inanimate-animate interconnectedness Kahn has tapped into over the course of his career.