Tobi Kahn

Tobi Kahn is an American painter and sculptor whose work has been shown in more than 50 solo exhibitions and 60 museums and group shows since he was selected as one of nine artists to be included in the 1985 New Horizons in American Art exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

A museum exhibition of over a decade of his work, Tobi Kahn: Metamorphosis, curated by Peter Selz, traveled to eight museums from 1997-1999, including the Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, North Carolina and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas. Dore Ashton, Michael Brenson, and Selz contributed thoughtful essays to the show's catalogue, published by the University of Washington Press. Selz wrote: "His paintings and his sculptures, executed with consummate craftsmanship, are animated by a yearning for the transcendent...at a time when the concept of beauty has become anathematized in critical discourse and the perception of the spiritual remains marginalized in the discussions of the art world."

Since the 1980s Kahn has been steadfast in his commitment to the redemptive possibilities of art. His miniature sacred spaces (what he calls shrines) explore the correspondence between the initimate and the monumental. His first full-scale shrine, Shalev, realized outdoors in New Harmony, Indiana, was commissioned by the Jane Owen and Robert Lee Blaffer Trust. While his early work draws on the tradition of American visionary landscape painting, his more recent pieces reflect his fascination with contemporary science, inspired by the micro-images of cell formations and satellite photography.[1][2]

In 1999, Avoda: Objects of the Spirit, a survey of Kahn's ceremonial art curated by Laura Kruger, opened at Hebrew Union College, New York, and traveled for nine years throughout the United States. Kahn and Carol Brennglass Spinner co-founded the Avoda project, an educational program that accompanied the exhibition. Led by Kahn, more than 10,000 university students of all races and religious beliefs made their own ceremonial objects for both traditional and contemporary ritual in their lives. For many, the Avoda workshops were their first experience in understanding the visual world. Object of the Spirit: Ritual and the Art of Tobi Kahn, a book about Kahn's ceremonial art edited by Emily Bilski, was published in June 2004 by Hudson Hills Press and the Avoda Institute. The catalogue includes essays by Leora Auslander, Bilski, Terrence E. Dempsey, S.J., Tom L. Freudenheim, Jonathan Rosen, Ruth Weisberg and meditations by Nessa Rapoport. Also in 1999, Kahn conceived a series of monumental, meditative sky-and-water paintings for Landscape at the Millennium, an exhibition (and catalogue) curated by Douglas Dreishpoon for the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York.

Kahn's fascination with the power of art for healing led to the creation, in 2001, of a permanent installation commissioned by the HealthCare Chaplaincy of New York: a meditative room consisting of nine sky-and-water murals and sculptural furniture designed and executed by the artist.

Kahn has also designed sets for Elizabeth Swados at The Public Theater and for work by the choreographers Muna Tseng and Gus Solomons.

In May 2003, an exhibition of Kahn's Sky and Water paintings opened at the Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, New York. The catalogue includes essays by Dede Young, who curated the show, and by Donald Kuspit. Another exhibition of selected paintings from the Neuberger project traveled as Reflections: Tobi Kahn to the Brauer Museum of Art and two additional venues in 2004. The catalogue for that exhibition included an essay by David Morgan.

Kahn's solo exhibition, Works from the Cape, opened in July 2003 at the Cape Museum of Art in Dennis, MA.

In 2004, Paradisus, a solo exhibition of Kahn's paintings of flowers curated by Mark White, opened at the gallery of Oklahoma State University and then traveled to the Century Club in NYC.

In 2008 Kahn was commissioned to create eight wall-scale paintings and ritual objects, including the eternal light, mezuzah, and panels for the ark doors, for the sanctuary of Congregation Emanu-El B'ne Jeshurun, Milwaukee, WI.

In October 2009 Tobi Kahn: Sacred Spaces for the 21st Century, a solo traveling exhibition of ceremonial and liturgical art, opened at MOBIA in NYC. A catalogue of the same title, edited by Ena Giurescu Heller and published by the Museum of Biblical Art in New York in association with D Giles Limited, London, accompanied the exhibition. The publication included essays by Jeff Edwards, Heller, Kahn, David Morgan, Klaus Ottmann, and Daniel Sperber, with meditations by Nessa Rapoport.

In September 2011, Embodied Light: 9-11 in 2011, an installation was commissioned by the Educational Alliance of New York in commemoration of the tenth anniversary of 9/11. Accompanying the exhibition was a catalogue with essays by Maya Benton, Norman L. Kleeblatt, James E. Young and meditations by Nessa Rapoport.

In November 2011, ALIGNED, Paintings by Tobi Kahn, a solo exhibition of paintings curated by John Shipman, opened at the Art Gallery at the University of Maryland with an accompanying catalogue.

In 2012, IMMANCE: The Art of Tobi Kahn, a solo exhibition of paintings from 1987-2012 opened at the Philadelphia Museum of Jewish Art, Philadelphia, PA. Another exhibition, RIFA-Sky and Water Installation, ran concurrently in Philadelphia at the National Museum of American Jewish History and had an accompanying catalogue.

In 2015, two solo museum exhibitions: Reverie: Tobi Kahn, a solo show of current work opened at the Cornell Museum of Rollins College, Winter Park, FL, and Meridian: Paintings and Ceremonial Art of Tobi Kahn at the Ft. Wayne Museum, Indiana. A catatlogue was published for both projects.

Kahn titles his works poetically so that, like the works themselves, these are abstractions, enabling the viewers to see what they will.

Kahn also communicates his vision through his passion for teaching. For more than 30 years he has taught fine art workshops at the School of the Visual Arts in New York City. He has also designed the arts curriculum for several high schools in the New York area, in addition to creating the program "Thinking Visually," an interdisciplinary arts program for Kivunim: New Directions, where he is an artist-in-residence.

Kahn co-founded and facilitates the Artists' Beit Midrash at the Skirball Center of Temple Emanu-El. His lectures on the importance of visual language and the art of healing have captivated audiences worldwide.

Among the awards Kahn has received are the Outstanding Alumni Achievement Award from Pratt Institute in 2000; the Cultural Achievement Award for the Visual Arts from the National Foundation of Jewish Culture in 2004; and an honorary doctorate from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2007 for his work as an artist and educator.

Kahn's work is represented in the follow Public Collections: Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY Brauer Museum of Art, Valparaiso, IN Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME Cornell Museum, Winter Park, FL Edwin A. Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita, KS Fort Wayne Musueum, Fort Wayne, IN Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX The Jewish Museum, New York, NY Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, FL Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, NY Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA Phillips Collection, Washington, DC Rose Art Museum, Brandis University, Waltham, MA Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles, CA Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY Weatherspoon Art Museum, University of North Carolina, Greensboro

Kahn was born in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City.[1]

His work has been exhibited at the Jerusalem Biennale, the Museum of Biblical Art (Dallas), the Museum of Contemporary Religious Art in St Louis, the Evansville Museum and in the Museum of Biblical Art (MOBIA) in New York.[1][2][3]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Freedman, Samuel (31 December 2010). "Art Intended to Make the End of Life Beautiful". New York Times.
  2. 1 2 Wecker, Menachem (9 July 2010). "Tobi Kahn's sky and water meditation paintings". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved 24 February 2015.
  3. ↑ "Tobi Kahn: Sacred Spaces for the 21st Century". Museum of Biblical Art. Retrieved 24 February 2015.
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