Hovering in the space between sculpture and painting, the work of New York-based Wyatt Kahn (born 1983) reinvigorates the legacy of minimalism.
His large-scale paintings collapse figuration and abstraction, encapsulate dynamic energy into geometric form and embrace imperfections and raw surfaces in an entirely human way.
Wyatt Kahn: Object Paintings features work from Kahn's first solo museum exhibition at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis. With an essay by scholar Robert Slifkin, the book also includes an interview between the artist and exhibition curator Jeffrey Uslip. Slifkin places Kahn in a "vitalist tradition of modernism" that includes Ad Reinhardt, Frank Stella and Donald Judd. But in contrast to those more pristine artists, Kahn allows imperfection in his work. "Every part of my work is made by my hand, which is a flawed hand," he tells Uslip, "I embrace my natural flaws, and that vulnerability becomes empowerment."