NICHOLAS MILES KAHN & RICHARD SELESNICK
Nicholas Miles Kahn, b. 1964, New York
Richard Selesnick, b. 1964, London
Nicholas Kahn and Richard Selesnick are a collaborative artist team who have been working together since they met while attending art school at Washington University in St. Louis in the early 1980s. Both were born in 1964, in New York City and London respectively. They work primarily in the fields of photography and installation art, specializing in fictitious histories set in the past or future. These may include: documentary-style panoramic and square photographs that combine absurdist fantasy and bogus anthropology; elaborately crafted artifact, costumes and sculpture, often constructed of unlikely materials such as bread or fur, painting and drawings ranging from large scale works on plaster to pages of conceptual doodling. Kahn lives in Ghent NY, and Selesnick in Rhinebeck NY.
Their current work features the recreation of the Truppe Fledermaus's Memory Theatre of 1932 with its full complement of Batfolk, Greenmen, Rope-Slingers, and Death-Dancers in all their Carnivalesque glory. Kahn & Selesnick have participated in over 100 solo and group exhibitions worldwide and have work in over 20 collections, including the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Houston Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Smithsonian Institution. In addition, they have published 3 books with Aperture Press, Scotlandfuturebog, City of Salt, and Apollo Prophecies. Their most recent book, 100 Views of the Drowning World, is available now from Candela Books.
EDUCATION
1986 BFAs, Washington University, St. Louis
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2015 Truppe Fledermaus, Suny Ulster Gallery, Marbletown NY
Truppe Fledermaus, Warner Gallery, St. Andrews School, Middletown, Delaware.
Truppe Fledermaus 3, Schoolhouse Gallery, Provincetown MA.
Truppe Fledermaus, Dreams of a Drowning World, Robischon Gallery, Denver Co.
2014Truppe Fledermaus, Jackson Fine Art, Atlanta
Truppe Fledermaus, Hammer Gallery, Chicago
Truppe Fledermaus, Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York
Truppe Fledermaus, Carroll & Sons, Boston
2013Mars: Adrift on the Hourglass Sea, Boise Art Museum, Boise, Id
Truppe Fledermaus, Cleveland State University, Cleveland
Truppe Fledermaus 2, Schoolhouse Gallery, Provincetown, Ma.
Truppe Fledermaus, Gallery 51, North Adams, Ma
Mars: Adrift on the Hourglass Sea, Galeria Mü, Bogata, Columbia
Truppe Fledermaus, Kopeikin Gallery, Los Angeles
Truppe Fledermaus, Robischon Gallery, Denver
2012Truppe Fledermaus, Schoolhouse Gallery, Provincetown, Ma.
2011City of Salt, Galeria Mü, Bogata, Columbia
Apollo Procephies & Mars: Adrift on the Hourglass Sea, Brenau University
Mars: Adrift on the Hourglass Sea, Carrie Haddad Photo, Hudson, NY
Mars: Adrift on the Hourglass Sea, Kopeikin Gallery, Los Angeles
Mars: Adrift on the Hourglass Sea, Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York
Mars: Adrift on the Hourglass Sea, Carl Hammer Gallery, Chicago
Apollo Procephies & Mars: Adrift on the Hourglass Sea, Museum of
Contemporary Photography, Chicago
2010 Mars: Adrift on the Hourglass Sea, Carroll & Sons Gallery, Boston
Kahn and Selesnick Cress Gallery, University of Tennessee, Chattanooga
Eisbergfreistadt & Other Fictions Torch Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Eisbergfreistadt Overbeck-Gesellschaft Museum, Lübeck, Germany
2009Eisbergfreistadt World’s End Contemporary, London, UK
Eisbergfreistadt DNA Gallery, Provincetown, Ma.
Eisbergfreistadt, Robishcon Gallery, Denver, CO
Eisbergfreistadt, Kopeikin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Eisbergfreistadt & Apollo Prophecies, Kohler Art Center, Sheboygan, WI
Eisbergfreistadt & Apollo Prophecies, Untitled [ArtSpace], Oklahoma City, OK
2008 Eisbergfreistadt, Carl Hammer Gallery, Chicago
The Apollo Prophecies, Hiestand Gallery of Art, Miami University, Ohio
Eisbergfreistadt, Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York
Eisbergfreistadt, Lisa Sette Gallery, Scottsdale
Kahn & Selesnick: A Ten Year Retrospective, Aeroplastics Gallery, Brussels
2007 Eisbergfreistadt, Pepper Gallery, Boston
Eisbergfreistadt, Irvine Contemporary, Washington DC
2006 The Art of Kahn and Selesnick, Dowd Fine Arts Center, SUNY Cortland
Kahn/Selesnick: A Ten Year Retrospective, Robischon Gallery, Denver
2005 The Apollo Prophecies, Carl Hammer Gallery, Chicago
The Apollo Prophecies, Irvine Contemporary, Washington, D.C.
The Apollo Prophecies, Lisa Sette Gallery, Scottsdale
The Apollo Prophecies, Paul Kopeikin Gallery, Los Angeles
Nomadischespuppetheater, Berta Walker Gallery, Provincetown
2004The Apollo Prophecies, Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York
The Apollo Prophecies, DNA Gallery Provincetown
The Apollo Prophecies, Pepper Gallery, Boston
2003City of Salt, Focus Gallery, London
City of Salt, Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York
2002 Scotlandfuturebog, Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York
City of Salt, Paul Kopeikin Gallery, Los Angeles
City of Salt, Carl Hammer Gallery, Chicago
City of Salt, Pepper Gallery Boston
City of Salt, Lisa Sette Gallery, Scottsdale
2001 City of Salt, DNA Gallery, Provincetown
Scotlandfuturebog, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, New York
2000 The REC, Past-Future, Palo Alto Arts Center, California
Schottensumpfkunftig, DNA Gallery, Provincetown
Past and Future, Lisa Sette Gallery, Scottsdale
Transmissions from the Schottensumpfkumpftig, David Beitzel Gallery, New York
1999 Schottensumpfkunftig, Pepper Gallery, Boston
The Circular River, Paul Kopeikin Gallery, Los Angeles
1998 The Circular River, Monique Knowlton, New York
The Circular River, Eli Marsh Gallery, Amherst College
Bachelier Cardonsky Gallery, Kent, Connecticut
Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, New York
The Circular River, Pepper Gallery Boston
1997 The Pavilion of the Greenman, Monique Knowlton, New York
The Burren Expedition, East End Gallery, Provincetown
The Journals of Peter Hesselbach, Monique Knowlton, New York
Tent of the Mesmer, Gallery Camino Real, Boca Raton
The Photographic Journals of Peter Hesselbach, Pepper Gallery, Boston
1996 Tent of the Mesmer, Bachelier Cardonsky Gallery, Kent, Connecticut
The Golden Age of Devonshire Semaphore: Royal Excavation Corps Signal Flag
Manouevres 1934-36, East End Gallery, Provincetown
The Roodloft of the Drunken Beekeeper, Monique Knowlton, New York
1995 Zelt der Biscuit Mench, East End Gallery, Provincetown
Chapel Dedicated to the Human Head, Hudson Walker Gallery, Provincetown. Collabrative Paintings, Gallery Camino Real, Boca Raton
1994 The Eskimo Paintings, Bachelier Cardonsky Gallery, Kent, Connecticut
The Biscuit Triptychs, East End Gallery, Provincetown
1993 Bog Pastries and Bread Heads from the Archives of the Royal Excavation Corps,
Forum Gallery, New York
Painted Heads, East End Gallery, Provincetown
The Delusional Object: Banners and Artefacts from the Royal Excavation Corps, Diana Burke, New York
1992 Flagman Artefacts, East End Gallery, Provincetown
1991 East End Gallery, Provincetown
Owen Patrick Gallery, Philadelphia
Klein Art Gallery, Woodstock
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2014 Alles Maskerade! MEWO Kunsthalle, Memmingen, Germany
Breaking Ground William & Mary College, Williamsburg, Virginia
Icarus: an Exploration of the Human Urge to Fly UNC Charlotte
Uncanny Spaces Usdan Gallery, Bennington College
Dawn to Dusk, Queensland Center for Photography, Brisbane, Australia
Vanishing Ice, Whatcom Museum, Bellingham, Wa
Vanishing Ice, El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, Tx
Vanishing Ice, Glenbow Museum, Calgary, Canada
2013 Extraordinary, Nooderlicht Photo Festival, The Netherlands
Animal, Vegetable, Mineral: An Artist’s Guide to the World, Florence Griswold
Museum, Old Lyme, Ct
First Contact, Gallery Project, Ann Arbor, Mi.
Lies that Tell the Truth: Magic Realism in Contemporary Art, Indiana State
University, Terra Haute, In
Nature’s Toolbox: Biodiversity, Art, and Invention, The Leonardo, Salt Lake City
Nature’s Toolbox: Biodiversity, Art, and Invention, Ulrich Museum, Wichita, Ka
2012 Covet: Art + Objects, Ferrin Gallery, Pittsfield, Ma
One of a Kind: Unique Artist’s Books, Dalhousie Gallery, Halifax, Canada
A Dream of Eternity, Villa Empain, Boghossian Foundation, Brussels, Belgium
Terra Cognita, Museum Belvedere, Heerenveen-Oranjewoud, Netherlands
Nature’s Toolbox: Biodiversity, Art, and Invention, The Field Museum, Chicago
New Yorker Fiction: Real Photographs, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art,
Beijing, China
2011One of a Kind: Unique Artist’s Books, Pierre Menard Gallery, Boston
New Yorker Fiction: Real Photographs, Stephen Kasher Gallery, New York
Worlds, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, Ca
Beautiful Vagabonds, Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York
Saturnalia, Irvine Contemporary, Washington DC
2010The Nature of Cities, United Nations Pavillion, Expo 2010, Shanghai, China
2009 2009 Godowsky Award Winners, Photographic Resource Center, Boston, Ma
Miroirs d’Orients, Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille, Lille, France
Art on the Moon, Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne, Germany
2008 Such Great Heights, Carrie Haddad Photographs, Hudson, NY
Melting Ice, Hot Topic, Field Museum, Chicago, IL,
Melting Ice, Hot Topic, Ministry of Culture, Monaco,
Eco-Sophia, Sheppard Fine Arts Gallery, University of Nevada, Reno Nevada,
2007 Melting Ice, Hot Topic, Nobel Peace Center, Oslo, Norway
Melting Ice, Hot Topic, Bozar Museum, Brussels, Belgium
Art from NASA’s Collection The Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC
Rare Essence, Aeroplastics Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
2006 The Twilight Zone, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, New York
Fellows, Hudson Walker Gallery, Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, Ma
2005 Dreamscapes, Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, Wisconsin
The City: Contemporary Views of the Built Environment, Lehman College Art Gallery, New York
Regional Triennial of Photographic Arts, Center for Photography at Woodstock
2004Dreamweavers, Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York
The City: Cotemporary Views of the Built Environment, Lehman College of Art
2003 Re-presenting Representation VI, Arnot Museum of Art, New York
First Photographs: Henry Fox Talbot and the Birth of Photography, Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego
2001Rumors of War: A Contemporary Exhibition Inspired by the Art of Jacob Lawrence, Triple Candie, New York.
Digital: Printmaking Now, Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York Works by Fellows of the Fine Arts Work Center, Cape Cod Museum of Art
Photosynthesis: Recent Developments in Contemporary Photography, Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts
Of Dreams and Dreamers: Art as a Vehicle of Escape, Carl Hammer Gallery, Chicago
Photo-Synthesis: Recent Developments in Contemporary Photography, Gallery Camino Real, Boca Raton
2001 False Witness: Joan Fontcuberta, Sputnik, and Kahn/Selesnick, David Winton
Bell Gallery, Brown University, Providence
2000 American Art Today: Fantasies & Curiousities, The Art Museum, Florida
International University, Miami
1999 Referencing the Past: Six Contemporary Artists: Kahn/Selesnick, John O’Reilly,
George Condo, David McGee, and Laurie, Hogan, Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts
Rattling the Frame, 1974-1999, Camera Works, San Francisco
Dramatis Personae: A Look at Role-playing and Narrative in Contemporary Photography, Photographic Resource Center, Boston University Faces of Time: 75 Years of Time Magazine Cover Portraits, National Portrait
Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.
Expanded Visions: The Panoramic Photograph, Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover
Self-amused: The Contemporary Artist as Observer and Observed, Brush Art Gallery, Lowell, Ma
10 Artists/10 Visions, De Cordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, Ma
Provincetown in Hudson, Carrie Haddad Gallery, New York
1995 Kopeikin Gallery, Los Angeles
Inaugural Group Show, Monique Knowlton, New York
1994-95 Visual Arts Fellows from the Fine Arts Work Center, Drerup Gallery, Plymouth State College
BIBLIOGRAPHY
2015 Lewis Lapham “Them” Lapham’s Quarterly Winter issue
2014 Adrienne Parks “Snozzberries for the Yellow King: Why True Detective is a
Religious Text” The Mockingbird, Summer Issue
Goings on about Town: Art The New Yorker, July
Vicki Goldberg “Art in Review” New York Times, June 20
Cate McQuaid “An Exhibit gone Batty” Boston Globe, Jan 15
Cover image Chronogram
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2013 Martha Schwendener, “The Organization of Art” New York Times, August 9
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Christopher Bentley, “Creations of Biodiversity” New Scientist, June 16
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Shearwater, “Animal Joy”, Sub Pop Records, album cover
2011The Moth & The Flame, album cover
Narayana Sewnandan “Meeting with Kahn & Selesnick” Blend Magazine, August
Kisa Lala, “Mythographers” Huffington Post, Feb 14
Holland Cotter “Beautiful Vagabonds” New York Times, Aug 11
Reproductions, Philosophie Magazine, July
Robert Hirsch, “Exploring Color Photography” Focal Press, paperback book
Nick Flynn, “The Captain Asks for a Show of Hands” Greywolf Press, cover
2010Sarah Falkner, “Alien Scenic Views,” Reality Sandwich, Oct
Mark Feeney, “Exploring Brave New Worlds,” The Boston Globe, Oct 1
Jean Hess, “Kahn & Selesnick”, Art Papers July/August
Maria Petersen “Eisbergfreistadt – Hintergründe zur Ausstellung” LübeckischeBlaätter April
Michael Berger “When an Iceberg threatened Lübeck” Lübecker Nachrichten,
April 10
Jennifer Calkins, “Kahn & Selesnick”, Eikon Magazine, Cover story, Issue 69
Shearwater, “The Golden Archipelago”, Matador Records, album cover
“Findings”, Harper’s Magazine January
Greg Cook, “Photography after Facebook at the PRC”, Boston Phoenix, Jan 15
2009 Mark Feeney, “Colorful, Alternate Realities”, Boston Globe, Dec 5
“Exhibition of the Month” GQ, October issue
James Dean, Bert Ulrich, Tom couch, Michael Collins “NASA/ART: 50 Years of
Exploration”, Abrams, hardcover book
Leah Ollman, “Kahn & Selesnick at Kopeikin,” The Los Angeles Times, July 31
“Der Mond” Hatje Cantz, paperback book
John Brandenburg, “Pano-vision,” The Oklahoman, Feb 22
Panoramic foldout, “The Space Age,” Outlook Magazine, China,
Jonathan Lethem, “Lostronaut,” The New Yorker, Nov 17
2008 Shearwater, “Rook,” Matador Records, album cover
Portfolio, “Horizons”, Ivory Press, hardcover book
Alan Artner, “Banknote Birds Recall Financial Panics of the Past”, The Chicago Tribune, Nov 7
Portfolio, Vision Magazine, China, Nov
Portfolio, Focus Magazine, The Netherlands, Feb
2007 Sarah Coleman, career review Photo District News, Feb 3
“Findings,” Harper’s Magazine, September
Jan DesLoover “Kahn & Selesnick” Fotomuseum Antwerp Magazine, fall
“Art in Action: Nature, Creativity & Our Creative Future,” Natural World Museum, hardcover book
Robert Hirsh, “Light and Lens: Photography in the Digital Age,” Focal Press, paperback book
Mark Freely, “Eisbergfreistadt,” The Boston Globe, May 13
Jessica Dawson, “Reflecting on a Cultural Divide,” The Washington Post, Nov 19
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2006 book review “Pick of the Week: Ye Olde Astronaut,” Time Out NY, Sept
2005 “C Magazine” Ivory Press, hardcover book
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Portfolio, Sides Magazine, Sept
Jessica Dawson “Reflecting on a Cultural Divide,” The Washington Post, Oct. 6
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“Findings,” Harper’s Magazine, July
2004 Caroline Bagenal, “The Apollo Prophecies,” Art New England, Oct.
Cate McQuaid, “A Lunar Extravaganza,” The Boston Globe, p. C16, May 28
David Haycock, “The Extraordinary Findings of Kahn/Selesnick and the Royal Excavation Corps,” Wraparound, pp 26-35, Spring
2003 “Next stop Shangri La,” Men’s Fashion of the Times, The New York Times, pgs
122-133, sept 21
Sarah Douglas, “Kahn/Selesnick at Yancey Richardson” The Art Newspaper, June 13 p.5
2002 Portfolio, Provincetown Arts Magazine
Cate McQuaid, “Self Portraits of the Artist as a Man facing Mortality," The Boston Globe, April 19
Vince Alletti, “More, More, More: the best photography books of 2002” Village Voice Feb. 3
Leah Ollman, “Power of Illusion and Desire” The Los Angeles Times Oct. 19
The Stamp Project, Cabinet Magazine pgs 63-65. Fall 2002 issue.
Colour reproductions, “Photography Past Forward: Aperture at 50” hardcover book, introduction by R.H.Cravens. Back cover, page 172. Aperture Press
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2001 Rich McKown, “Small Works from the Fine Arts Work Center at the Cape,
Museum of Fine Arts,” Art New England, Dec.
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NICHOLAS KAHN & RICHARD SELESNICK
Madame Lulu’s Book of Fate
November 1 - December 28, 2019
When you look through the porthole of your berth aboard the ship, what do you see? The raging ocean? Distant clouds? A lone iceberg? When you stand on the deck and look through a telescope, what do you see? The future? The past? An undiscovered shoreline? A drowning man? The Truppe Fledermaus invite you to look through the peephole where you shall find scenes of men and women trying to parse that which is to come, speak with those departed, or just finding their pleasure amid the florid decay of a world in decline. For in a world where personal and societal mythologies supersede facts, where the promise of virtual reality threatens to supersede the real thing, what better way to approach an uncertain future than through the arcane methods of augury and clairvoyance – after all, is not prophecy the original fake news?
Kahn & Selesnick’s latest project “Madame Lulu’s Book of Fate” continues the adventures of the Truppe Fledermaus, a cabaret troupe of anxious mummers and would-be mystics who catalog their absurdist attempts to augur a future that seems increasingly in peril due to environmental pressures and global turmoil. In this body of work, the artists also examine the notion of the carnivalesque – traditionally the carnival was a time when the normal order of society was upended and reversed, so that at least for a day the fool might become king, the sinner a priest, men and women might crossdress, and sacred ceremonies and normal mores are burlesqued and spoofed. During such brief times of anarchy, societal pressures were relieved by revealing their somewhat absurd and arbitrary natures. Costumes and masks were traditionally worn so that all people might have the same social status during the duration of the festival. The Truppe ask you to consider: is it the carnival that is upside-down, or perhaps the real world that it purports to burlesque?