Press Release

David Zwirner is pleased to present an exhibition by Scott Kahn (b. 1946) at the gallery’s 537 West 20th Street location in New York. Over more than five decades, Kahn has maintained a commitment to a representational mode of expression, using a distinctive formal language to achieve a nuanced and poetic rendition of the simultaneous splendor and mundanity of the world around him. Focusing on the artist’s singular landscapes—a genre that is central to his practice—the exhibition will bring together new and recent paintings that explore Kahn’s most enduring motifs.

Rooted in his everyday life and experiences, Kahn’s enigmatic landscapes blend real and surreal elements. Many read as near facsimiles of lived experience shot through with electric color or ghostly shadows: billowing clouds that seem to come alive, ominous moonscapes, bare trees electrified by unexpected hues, and picture windows that open onto worlds both known and unknown. Seasons turn and day recedes into night, change often sweeping across a single canvas. As writer and poet John Yau has observed: “Standing before a painting by Kahn, we begin to see ourselves seeing a world, which, despite its plethora of precise details, remains a mystery, like a beautiful box that cannot be opened up.”

1 John Yau, “Scott Kahn’s Inimitable Views,”(2024).

Read More
About the Artist

Rooted in the artist’s everyday life and experiences, American artist Scott Kahn’s enigmatic landscapes, portraits, and dreamscapes blend real and surreal elements. The artist has remained committed to a figurative mode of expression over the course of more than five decades, using a distinctive formal language to achieve a nuanced and poetic rendition of the simultaneous splendour and mundanity of the world around him. His surfaces are meticulously constructed according to precise geometries and chromatic and spatial relationships wherein the artist employs perspective and light to establish an illusory sense of depth that underscores the resonances imparted by the recurring cast of people, places, and symbols. Kahn’s works evidence his individual point of view while opening out onto universal themes, offering viewers a conduit through which to access a wide range of experiences and emotions.

View Artist Profile

Also Exhibiting

About the Gallery
Since opening its doors in 1993, David Zwirner has been home to innovative, singular, and pioneering exhibitions across a variety of media and genres. The gallery has helped foster the careers of some of the most influential artists working today, and has maintained long-term representation of a wide-ranging, international group of artists and estates. Based in New York with spaces in Chelsea and the Upper East Side, David Zwirner expanded to Europe in 2012 with a gallery in an eighteenth-century Georgian townhouse in London’s Mayfair district, and opened its first gallery in Asia in January 2018 in Central Hong Kong.
View Gallery Profile
Address
537 West 20th Street
New York
United States
Opening Hours
Tuesday – Saturday
10am – 6pm
(1)
New York 537 West 20th Street
David Zwirner
537 West 20th Street, New York, United States
+1 212 517 8677
http://www.davidzwirner.com

Opening hours
Tuesday – Saturday
10am – 6pm
The art world in focus