Steve Kahn
Fine Art Photography
About
Steve Kahn (1943-2018)
Photography was not what I learned in school, but I studied it like a language and got my experience on the street, shooting what was around me, following a tradition of reportage image making. I did not find this very satisfying and soon broke from tradition with the production of my first monograph "Stasis 1973." That was followed by "The Hollywood Suites," a 4-year exploration of events in rooms of old tenement buildings in a run-down section of Hollywood. I first photographed genre nudes, then focused on the rooms themselves, isolating key architectural elements, exploring inside/outside relationships, abstraction and multiple image presentations.
Moving to New York in 1986 changed everything for me. Except for a photo essay of "Chemical Plants" in 1989, I worked almost exclusively as a commercial photographer.
In 2002 I returned to the art arena with a comprehensive group of post-9/11 portraits entitled "Subway Series."
​
Represented by Howard Greenberg Gallery in NY and Casemore Kirkeby Gallery in SF.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2020 Casemore Kirkeby Gallery, San Francisco, CA; Polaroids: Steve Kahn 1974-1977
2018 de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA; The Hollywood Suites (Catalog)
Casemore Kirkeby Gallery, San Francisco, CA; Stasis, Corridors 1969-1980
Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York, NY; Hollywood Suites
2016 Casemore Kirkeby Gallery; San Francisco, CA; Triptychs and Door/Window Constructions (murals)
2015 Joseph Bellows Gallery; La Jolla, CA; Corridors 1979/2013
2013 Galería Sánchez de Lamadrid; Jerez de la Frontera, Spain; Being There 1967-69
2012 Joseph Bellows Gallery; La Jolla, CA; The Hollywood Suites 1974-77
2002 Centro de Investigaciones Etnológicas; Granada, Spain; New York – El Metro (Catalog)
1981 De Beyerd Museum; Breda, Holland (Catalog)
Yvon Lambert Gallery; Paris, France; Triptychs and Quadrants
Basel Art Fair (Yvon Lambert Gallery); Basel, Switzerland
International Culturel Centrum; Antwerp, Belgium; Triptychs and Quadrants (Catalog)
1980 Rosamund Felsen Gallery; Los Angeles; Sprayed Cement Doors
1979 Young/Hoffman Gallery; Chicago; Triptychs, Quadrants and Door/Window Constructions
Cronin Gallery; Houston; Storm/Wall (murals)
Rosamund Felsen Gallery; Los Angeles; Door/Window Constructions (murals)
1977 Gagosian Gallery (aka: Broxton Gallery); Los Angeles; Triptych and Quadrant (murals)
1976 The Texas Center for Photographic Studies; Dallas; Triptych and Quadrant (murals)
1975 California State University; Los Angeles; Stasis
American Cultural Center; Paris, France; Stasis
USIS Cultural Program; Milan, Rome & Naples, Italy; Stasis
1974 The Photographers’ Gallery; London, England; Stasis
​
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2020 "Southland"; Gallery Luisotti, Los Angeles, CA
"Unseen: 35 Years of Collecting Photographs"; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA
2012 “Silver Curtain”; Stephen Wirtz Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2008-2012 “Flamenco Project”; 10 venues in Spain (Cádiz, Córdoba, Jerez de la Frontera, Badajoz, Sevilla and Utrera; (Catalog)
“Prohibido el Cante: Flamenco y Fotografía”; Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo (CAAC); Sevilla, Spain; Aperture Gallery, NYC (Catalog)
2003 “Sinmisterios del Flamenco”; Centro de Investigaciones Etnológicas; Granada, Spain; (Catalog)
2002 “Here is New York”; Traveling Exhibition; Images from the 9/11 Attack on the WTC
1999 “Blur and Modernism / Dreaming and Becoming”; Les Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie d'Arles (Catalog)
“Proof: Los Angeles Art and the Photograph, 1960-1980”; Laguna Art Museum, California (Catalog)
“L’Art Amerécain 1960-1992”; Museé de Toulon, France (Catalog)
1986 “Five Years of Acquisitions”; Museé de La Roche-sur-Yon, France
1984 “La Photographie Creative”; Pavilion des Arts de la Ville de Paris
1983 “Color Photography”; Oakland Museum of Art, California; Corridors
“Young Talent Awards; l963 - 1983”; Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Catalog)
1982 “Contemporary Tryptychs”, Claremont College, California (Catalog)
“Target III: In Sequence”; Photographic Sequences from the Target Collection of
American Photography; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (Catalog)
1981 “Locations”; California State College, San Bernardino
“Wallworks”; University of Southern California, Los Angeles (Catalog)
1980 “Situational Imagery”; University of California, Irvine
Annina Nosei Gallery; New York City; Triptych #6 (mural)
1979 “Attitudes: Photography in the 1970’s”; Santa Barbara Museum, California (Catalog)
“DeCointet, Hernandez, Holste, Kahn” Otis Art Institute, Los Angeles
“The Anthony G. Cronin Memorial Collection”; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (Catalog)
The Altered Photograph”; PS1, New York Door/Window #2
1978 “Interchange”; Mount St. Mary’s College, Los Angeles (Catalog)
“Contemporary California Photography”; Camerawork Gallery, San Francisco (Catalog)
"Ten Artists' Work Sent From Los Angeles to Hallwalls"; Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center, Buffalo, NY (Catalog)
1977 “Creative Photography of the 20th Century from the Collection of the Bibliotheque Nationale”;
Museé Nationale D’Art Modern et Culture George Pompidou, Paris
“Emerging LA Photographers”; Friends of Photography, Carmel, and ICP, New York City, (Catalog)
"Faculty Exhibition" California Institute of the Arts, Los Angeles, CA (Catalog)
1976 “Exposing: Photographic Definitions”; Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art (Catalog)
“Contemporary American Photography”; University of California, Los Angeles (Catalog)
“Sequences”; Broxton Gallery, Los Angeles
1975 “8 Artists from LA”; San Francisco Art Institute
1974 “Light and Substance”; University of New Mexico, Albuquerque (Catalog)
1973 "Emulsion '73"; Civic Arts Gallery, Walnut Creek, CA (Catalog)
"24 from LA”; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (Catalog)
​
ART FAIRS
2018 Paris Photo, Paris, Casemore Kirkeby
2017 Untitled.ART SF; Casemore Kirkeby
PhotoFairs SF; Casemore Kirkeby
2016 AIPAD; Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York
2015 AIPAD; Joseph Bellows Gallery
2014 Classic Photo LA, Joseph Bellows Gallery
2013 PhotoLA; Joseph Bellows Gallery
​
ACQUISITIONS 2016-2017
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C
Art Institute of Chicago
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
de Young Museum, San Francisco
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
​
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
High Museum of Art, Atlanta
University of New Mexico, Albuquerque
Houston Museum of Fine Arts
Dallas Museum of Art
de Young Museum, San Francisco
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art
Grunwald Collection / Hammer Gallery UCLA
Power Gallery of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia
De Beyerd Museum, Breda, Holland
Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, France
Museum of Modern Art, Toulon, France
Museé de La Roche-sur-Yon, France
AWARDS AND GRANTS
2010 Los Premios de la X Convocatoria Cultural Internacional del Festival del Cante de las Minas (2009)
Visual Arts: Flamenco Project, una ventana a la visión extranjera 1960 – 1985, a project dedicated to assembling, preserving, exhibiting and publishing of unique audiovisual documents reflecting a foreign perspective on flamenco; edited and curated by Steve Kahn and sponsored by the Sevilla-based cultural foundation Cajasol | Obra Social.
1980 Photographer Fellowship; National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)
1979 Young Talent Purchase Award; Los Angeles County Museum of Art
​
PUBLICATIONS
2018 Chemical Plants; Nazraeli Press Library Series; scheduled for publication Winter 2018
2015 Corridors; Nazraeli Press 1-Picture Book; 7 color reproductions + original print; ISBN 978-1-59005-425-3
2014 The Hollywood Suites 1974-1976; Nazraeli Press Library Series; 51 b/w reproductions; ISBN 978-1-59005-385-0
2010 Flamenco Project, una ventana a la visión extranjera 1960 – 1985; Cajasol | Obra Social (Spain); Steve Kahn, Editor;
192 pages, 120 b/w reproductions, 8 essays; ISBN 978-84-92704-24-8
1999 SoHo New York; Rizzoli International Publications; 144 pages, 137 color reproductions; ISBN 0-8478-2156-0;
1973 Stasis; Independently Published Monograph of 22 Photographs; ISBN 00-914538-00-4
​
EDUCATION
1966 BA Reed College; Portland, Oregon
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
​
2003 Instructor, Digital Photography & Advanced Photography; Pratt Institute, NYC
2002 Instructor; Digital Photography; Pratt Institute, NYC
2000 Guest Lecture, Rochester Institute of Technology
1981 Guest Artist; Chicago Art Institute (Week-long Workshop)
1978-1979 Instructor; Graduate Program, California Institute of the Arts
PERSONAL DATA
​
1943 Born in Los Angeles, California
1968-1986 Los Angeles
1986-2009 New York City
2009-2011 Spain and Berkeley, California
2012-2018 Berkeley, California