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The Queue: Misha Kahn

Misha Kahn’s unrepentantly maximalist works use a dizzying array of materials and techniques to steamroll over the borders between craft, design, and sculpture.

The Brooklyn-based designer and artist shares about the iconic craft artists whose works populate his home, the challenges of working with wood, and the alchemical magic of electroforming.

By Shivaun Watchorn
October 30, 2023

Photo by Joshua White, courtesy of Friedman Benda and Misha Kahn

Misha Kahn blends craft, design, and sculpture into spectacularly maximalist furniture.

In the world of Misha Kahn, no material or technique is out of reach. His exuberant sculptures and furniture incorporate wood, glass, metal, plastics, resin, textiles, clay, found objects, fur, electronic components, gemstones, and countless other materials. He sews, carves, blows, weaves, shapes, throws, paints, and chars these materials into weird, wild, wonderful couches, tables, lighting, jewelry, wall hangings, objets d’art, and everything in between. Born in Duluth, Minnesota, he learned to sew from his grandmother at a young age. A year of studying the highly specialized craft of shoemaking illuminated for him the possibilities that arise when one attempts a new medium or technique. “This is the characteristic that generally makes craft so compelling—discovering this tiny, tiny door that somehow opens into an enormous world,” he says. Kahn is currently based in Brooklyn, where his studio is working on building an entire house, his Gesamtkunstwerk. His new book, Casually Sauntering the Perimeter of Now, covering the first 10 years of his career, is available now from Apartamento. Jennifer Vogel wrote about Kahn and his loveseat Harvest Moon in “Assemblage” in the Fall 2023 issue of American Craft.

Photo courtesy of Friedman Benda and Misha Kahn

Misha Kahn, A Few Loose Ends, 2022, mohair, 133.75 x 198.75 in.

How do you describe your work or practice in 50 words or less?

I’m interested in looking at industrial methods of production and altering them for idiosyncrasy, trying to make a more ideal relationship between the natural world, humans, and our objects. I work with as broad a material palette as possible.

Tell us about the first piece of furniture that captivated you. What about it drew you in?

My grandpa had an Eames Lounge Chair. It’s so wild to say now, but as a teen I really gravitated toward mid-century objects. I think the form is so inviting—so comfortable but also very sexy.

What do you collect in your home? What about in your studio?

At home we have work by a lot of people I really admire: a Wendell Castle piece, a Gaetano Pesce dining table, a couple Campana brothers pieces, some lamps by Katie Stout, and so on.

Photo by PEPE fotografia, courtesy of Friedman Benda and Misha Kahn

Misha Kahn, Mole Eats Worm, 2020, foam, fabric, steel, 38.75 x 107 x 45 in.

  • Photo by Adam Reich, courtesy of Friedman Benda and Misha Kahn

    Misha Kahn, The Wild One China Cabinet, 2016, lavimisu, banana leaves, cactus, bone, wood, grasses, and glass, 89 x 67 x 31 in.

  • Photo by Humberto Tachiquín, courtesy of Friedman Benda and Misha Kahn

    Misha Kahn, Lethologica, 2021, stainless steel, anodized aluminum, 118.5 x 597.75 x 68.75 in.

If you could have work from any contemporary craft artist for your home, whose would it be and why?

Kostas Lambridis, because the work is so generous. Just when you think you couldn’t get one more material that had been cajoled and lovingly integrated into the composition, you discover two. It melds thoughtful craftsmanship across wood, ceramics, metal, glass, and more.

Your work comprises so many materials and methods. Which materials are your favorites? Which vex you?

I love to sew. I find working with fabric to create a form to be deeply relaxing, whereas most other materials involve more stress or fighting from me. I also love to sculpt in the computer, which ultimately gets 3D printed or carved in the studio. I think wood is the one that tends to frustrate me the most. I like when a material seems both readily additive and subtractive, and wood works so much quicker in the subtractive direction that I feel it creates a gravity that I don’t love.

What are your favorite tools in your tool kit, and how do you use them?

We just built an electroforming bath, and it is pure magic to submerge objects into a vat of acid and pull out something covered in metal. I love it.

Photo by Daniel Kukla, courtesy of Friedman Bend and Misha Kahn

Misha Kahn seated on top of his sculpture Scrappy Grand, 2017, found objects, mixed media, ceramic beads, grass, fibers, 110 x 84.5 x 44.5 in.

Shivaun Watchorn is associate editor of American Craft.

Visit Misha Kahn online.

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This article was made possible with support from the Windgate Foundation.

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