Selected Works
Isaac Kahn was born in 1950 in Kaunas, Lithuania. He was fortunate to be exposed to artistic expression at a very young age, as his father was a painter and his mother was a make-up artist in the film industry. When he was 14, Kahn migrated to Israel with his mother and his sister. While there, his art teacher encouraged Isaac to continue to focus on honing his talent, because he excelled at both wood engraving and sculpting. He moved to Uruguay in 1973 where he continued his studies at the University of Plastic Arts in Montevideo. In 1975, at the age of 25, he presented his first one-man exhibition in the exhibit hall of Montevideo where one of his works was purchased by the widow of the President of Uruguay.
After further developing his artistic abilities, Kahn received a scholarship to study at the prestigious Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Israel. Following the Yom Kippur War in 1973, and after succeeding at the university level in Israel, Isaac’s uncle invited him to move back to Uruguay, where he subsequently enrolled in University of Montevideo’s sculpture department. Today, Kahn is a prominent artist who excels at revealing new realms of expression through a range of distinctly moving sculptures.
Many of Isaac Kahn’s pieces contain symbols and conceptual elements. This symbolism stems from both conceptual and spatial art. He conflates modern subject matter, minimalism and dynamism. The special technique he uses in order to achieve rich colors in the patina of his sculptures, gives each sculpture a unique look reminiscent of painting. The themes appearing in his works are mostly reminiscent of the female body, an apple or a musical instrument, other elements from the musical world, family, jugglers, riding, dancing and recently a series of stereo-metrical monochromatic works.
According to Kahn, “It is necessary to learn all of your life in order to develop, but it is important to keep your own integrity.” One of his defining characteristics is self-discipline. His works are characterized by geometrical division and order. At the beginning of his career, Isaac made colors himself from pigments, so that the colors were more concentrated and intense. His compositions are harmonious and characterized by centralization and equilibrium. The illusion of space, movement and volume in his two dimensional work is achieved by gradations of light and shadows, different size and contours, the direction of the lines, the hue gradations and the multiple viewpoints.
In 1984 he began working in Italy before settling there in 1991. He opened a gallery in Verona showing his work. He has exhibited widely and his work can now be found in public and private collections in the USA, South America, Israel, Europe, Japan and Korea.
ART FAIRS
Art Wynwood | 2016
Feb 11 - 15, 2016
Art Wynwood | 2015
Feb 12 - 16, 2015