Harold Kahn

Part of my concerns are with the inherent qualities of particular materials, such as sheet metal, wood, paper, wax, plaster, glass, and clay. Aside from an Oriental sensitivity to simple materials and natural processes, I am interested in the irregularities and imperfections that result from the activity of forming each piece. Such irregularities and imperfections appear all the more significant when one compares one object to the next; hence, the repetitive nature and serial form of my work. After having made these pieces, I find myself concerned with how age and time transform each work by their cumulative effect on the materials involved. Metal rusts, wood decays, plaster cracks and chips, etc. Everything in this world breaks down and decays over time. We are all transformed with the passage of time.

Native New Yorker Harold Kahn moved to Florida in 2021 and brought with him his large-scale wall sculptures. Fabricated in a series in one specific material, such as sheet metal, wood, clay, plaster, wax, or handmade paper, installations of his work have appeared in a variety of venues in the New York metropolitan area. His more recent work is now on a much smaller scale though his concerns remain the same. Kahn’s work is in the permanent collection of Yeshiva University Museum as well as in private collections. He holds a BFA degree from Queens College and an MFA degree from SUNY Albany.