misha kahn turns upholstery into painting and marble into fabric at friedman benda

an unruly collection arrives in new york

Misha Kahn‘s latest exhibition, All Intensive Purposes, brings a radical collection of furniture and sculpture to Friedman Benda, marking ten years of collaboration with the gallery. A sofa resembles a pile of painted shapes, and a marble console seems to sag beneath the drapes of its own fabric-like surface.

The works reveal Kahn’s fascination with material experimentation and the unpredictable ways an idea can develop through the process of making. At the show’s opening, designboom spoke with the artist and designer about the thinking behind these unusual objects and his return to more tactile methods of working.

Throughout the New York gallery, familiar objects take on unexpected qualities. Striped plywood returns to tree-like forms, copper is worked into the appearance of loosely knitted fabric. There’s even a ‘lazy river’ circulating through the space.

misha kahn returns to the tactile

For much of his career, Misha Kahn has moved between physical craft and digital experimentation, producing furniture through everything from improvised molds to virtual reality. His earlier work often carried the exaggerated, gravity-defying appearance of objects conceived on a computer screen. This time, he describes a shift toward something more immediate.

‘I think, the past handful of years, I really was doing so much work conceptually, digitally,‘ the artist tells designboom. ‘I think this show was really sort of a studio move.‘ Working partly from his studio in the woods, he describes a spiritual shift toward something ‘really tactile,’ with collage and material experimentation becoming central to the new pieces.

painting a sofa, then making it all over again

The new upholstered pieces offer one of the clearest examples of Kahn’s current approach. Their rounded forms appear assembled from enormous painted fragments, with irregular cushions that overlap and separate. Kahn explains that the process began with a painted composition, which was subsequently translated into wool by textile studio JG SWITZER. The material was then brought back into the furniture-making process, with patterns used to reconstruct the original painted arrangement across the upholstered surfaces.

‘I’ve never gotten that control over the surface,‘ the artist says, explaining that conventional upholstery typically requires working within the limitations of existing fabrics. The new process allowed him to develop the form and its graphic treatment together.

The construction underneath is equally unconventional. ‘We make the frames in the studio, and they’re welded so that the shapes can really flow,‘ Kahn explains. ‘I find that the most satisfying part is sort of the air between the cushions, because we’re so used to seeing a continuous form.‘ Some of the cushions appear loosely attached, raising questions about which parts can actually be moved, while additional pillow elements extend the composition even further.

a lazy river running through friedman benda gallery

Perhaps the exhibition’s most unexpected addition is a miniature lazy river, a winding installation that circulates through the gallery alongside a large video projection. The idea came to Kahn with surprising simplicity. ‘I thought, I don’t know why, I think like the beach,‘ he recalls, laughing. ‘I was like, this show needs a lazy river.‘

The video presents an abstract sequence of actions in which materials are repeatedly manipulated and transformed, eventually producing a kind of juice. ‘I wanted to make this video, like, a really abstract version of what it feels like to make objects,‘ he explains, describing the experience of doing something, taking it apart, and putting it back together over and over again.

Kahn designed a series of plastic bottles to accompany the installation, using the familiar manufacturing process associated with commercial water bottles to produce unusual, doubled forms. The arrangement circles continuously, offering a physical interpretation of the exhibition’s title, All Intensive Purposes, which shifts the familiar expression toward the intensity of making, even when the destination remains uncertain.

where furniture ends and sculpture begins

Kahn has spent much of his career working somewhere between furniture and sculpture. His pieces maintain a recognizable connection to domestic objects, while their unusual proportions and complex surfaces complicate their intended use. In Throws of Passion, for instance, a substantial marble console is carved to resemble draped fabric, its folds appearing almost weightless despite the solidity of the stone.

Asked whether his practice has recently moved further toward sculpture or functional furniture, Kahn describes both as part of the same imagined environment. ‘I feel like I always just wanted to feel like it’s coming from one world,‘ he says. ‘Objects really communicate an idea because I think you understand them as, like, oh, this is what’s in the house, and this is what goes there.‘

He also acknowledges the freedom that comes with making objects beyond the expectations of furniture. ‘I have really enjoyed making sculpture because it just doesn’t have some of the same kind of requirements,‘ he explains. Still, the distinction appears of limited interest to him. ‘I always feel like it should have both. All of my favorite historical figures did both.‘

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project info:

name: All Intensive Purposes

artist: Misha Kahn | @mishakahn

gallery: Friedman Benda | @friedman_benda

location: 515 West 26th Street, New York, NY

photography: © Ryan Petrus | @ryan.michael.petrus, © designboom