Morphologie

The painter and object artist Lev Khesin (b. in Russia, lives and works in Berlin) makes work that brings the complex interactions between color and materiality into focus. Defying the sway of linguistic systems, Khesin, who graduated from Frank Badur's master class, explores the cognitive potential of an art unfettered by concepts imposed on objects and phenomena. In a time-consuming process and using diverse tools, he spreads out multiple overlaid strata of translucent silicone dyed in a variety of hues, molding smooth surfaces and rutted structures. By painting in silicone enhanced with pigments, Khesin appeals to the senses of vision and touch in equal measure. In Western culture, and certainly since the Enlightenment, these have long been regarded as antagonists: seeing has been thought of as a distancing, "pure," and intellectual mode of perception antithetical and superior to the contaminating contact of touch. In this sense, Khesin's paintings undo a dichotomy that more recently fueled the dispute over figural representation and abstraction.