The Bowery Gallery in
Chelsea is currently presenting a collection of new oil paintings by Deborah
Kahn that focus on emotion. Kahn’s subjects include men, women, and she uses
certain colors in her works to convey different feelings.
For instance, Floating depicts several individuals who
appear to be contemplating different things and experiencing different
emotions. A couple of these characters include a mother sitting on a window
sill as she holds her child who can be seen hanging from his mother’s arms as
his legs are crossed. The background consists of cool colors like light blue
and green as though each one is floating in a sea of his or her own feelings
hence the title of the painting.
 |
| "Floating" (2014) by Deborah Kahn |
Another notable painting titled Mars Red Man and Yellow Animal features
a young man who represents a character that exists in all of us, full of humor
and pain. The different movements
and colors in the paintings symbolize how the mind’s fluid movement from
conscious to the unconscious, and also represent how emotions are transferred
from one individual to another, or even to an animal.
About her work, Kahn says “I believe that art, like emotion, contains
coexisting contradictions. My paintings are an attempt to make this idea
concrete.... Painting for me is a controlled connection to an inner world.”
Kahn studied at Boston University and the Kansas City Art Institute
before receiving her MFA from Yale University. She is an Associate Professor
Emerita at American University in Washington, DC. She also taught at Dartmouth College,
Yale University and the New York Studio School. Kahn has exhibited widely in
the United States and also in Japan. She was a past recipient of a Guggenheim
Foundation Fellowship.
At the Bowery Gallery 530 W. 25th St., through
May 16. The gallery is open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 11 a.m. until 6
p.m.
