Stanya Kahn Explained

Stanya Kahn
Birth Place:	San Francisco, California, U.S.
Training:	San Francisco State University Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College

Stanya Kahn (born 1968) is an American artist. She graduated magna cum laude from San Francisco State University and received an MFA in 2003 from the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College. Kahn lives and works in Los Angeles, California.^[1]

Artwork

Kahn was a 2012 Guggenheim Fellow in Film/Video. She was a contributing writer and actor in the feature film By Hook or By Crook.

Films and videos

Kahn has made two feature films and multiple shorts and animations, including:

• 2020 No Go Backs (33 min short, 16mm transferred to 2K)
• 2011-2017 Stand in the Stream (60 min feature, HD video)
• 2014 Don’t Go Back to Sleep (74 min feature, HD video)
• 2012 Happy Song for You (5 min short, HD video)
• 2010 It’s Cool, I’m Good (35 min short, SD video)

Early work

From 1988 to 1999 Kahn made multidisciplinary performance works, both solo and collaborative, in San Francisco, New York, and touring nationally and internationally.^[2]

Collaborations with Harry Dodge

In the early 1990s, Kahn met Harry Dodge, a video artist. The two began collaborating in the late 1990's on performance and on the film By Hook or By Crook and continued making short videos until 2008, co-writing, directing and editing. Kahn improvised most of the language in the videos while Dodge often operated the camera.^[3]

Their comedic videos satirize the awkwardness of artmaking, video, and gender. Beyond their humor, Kahn and Dodge's videos touch upon the darker seriousness of trauma, privilege, and politics.^[4]

Among several other museums and events, Kahn and Dodge's work has been shown in numerous venues nationally and internationally, including:^[5]

• • The 2008 Whitney Biennial The 2010 California Biennial at the Orange County Museum of Art
• Getty Center, Los Angeles
• Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
• The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
• The Museum of Modern Art, New York
• Sundance Film Festival, Utah

Achievements

• 2012 – John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship^[6]
• 2012 – Jury Prize: Best Short, Narrative Fiction, Migrating Forms Film Festival
• 2013 – Artadia Award, Los Angeles^[7]
• 2014 CCI Investing in Artists Grant^[8]
• 2015 – San Francisco Art Institute Artist-in-Residence
• 2017 Acts of Life Residency, Singapore and Manila, NTU CCA & Goethe Institute
• 2017 Herb Alpert Award nomination (two categories: visual art and film/video)
• 2018 Herb Alpert Award nomination (film/video)
• 2018 MacDowell Residency
• 2020 Anonymous Was a Woman nomination
• 2020 Herb Alpert nomination (film/video)
• 2023 Anonymous Was a Woman Award^[9]

External links

• Stanya Kahn’s website
• Harry Dodge and Stanya Kahn's Ubuweb video page
• Vielmetter Los Angeles' page
• All Together Now Vimeo

Further reading

• Beckhurst, Gabriella, Against Inheritance: Stanya Kahn’s No Go Backs, Another Gaze Journal
• Simmons, William J., Portfolio: Stanya Kahn, Bomb Magazine
• Bell, Natalie & Burton, Johanna (2017). Trigger: Gender as a Tool and a Weapon. New York, NY: New Museum. .
• Kahn and Dodge's interview with Michael Smith in Bomb Magazine
• Phillips, Glenn (2008). California Video: Artists and Histories. Los Angeles, CA: Getty Research Institute. .
• Kushner, Rachel.  ARTFORUM INTERNATIONAL; ARTFORUM Vol. 46, Iss. 5, (Jan 2008): 240-243.
• Rosenthal, Tracy Jeanne. Stanya Kahn. Art in America (1939), 2015, Vol.103 (6), p.130
• Greg, A. E. (2010). Artistic intervention in the Los Angeles urban geography: The art practices of Charles Long, Harry Dodge and Stanya Kahn. ProQuest Dissertation Publishing.
  • Jennings, G. (Ed.). (2015). Abstract Video: The Moving Image in Contemporary Art (1st ed.). University of California Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt1963294

Notes and References

1. Web site: Stanya Kahn Artists. 2020-12-12. VIELMETTER LOS ANGELES.
2. https://stanyakahn.com/index.php/image/performance-1995-2003/
3. Book: Calif.). J. Paul Getty museum (Los Angeles. California Video: Artists and Histories. Gonzalez. Rita. Seid. Steve. Yonemoto. Bruce. 2008. Getty Publications. 978-0-89236-922-5. en.
4. Volk. Gregory. 2008. Spring in Dystopia. Art in America. 5. 158. EBSCO.
5. Web site: Electronic Arts Intermix : Stanya Kahn : Biography . 2013-05-15 . Eai.org.
6. Web site: Stanya Kahn – 2012 – US & Canada Competition Creative Arts – Film - Video . Fellowships to Assist Research and Artistic Creation . John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation . May 14, 2013.
7. Web site: Stanya Kahn. 2020-12-16. Artadia.
8. Web site: 2015 Artist-in-Residence: Stanya Kahn2015 Faculty Head, Low-Residency MFA Program: Laura Richard - Announcements - Art & Education . 2020-12-16 . www.artandeducation.net.
9. Web site: Durón . Maximilíano . 2023-12-14 . Anonymous Was A Woman Names 2023 Winners, Including Artists Dindga McCannon, Carolina Caycedo, Barbara Kasten, Amanda Ross-Ho . 2023-12-24 . ARTnews.com . en-US.