Misha Kahn at the Friedman Benda Gallery

This summer, the Palais Royal is not just a jewel of Parisian heritage. It is also the setting for a unique sensory experience where history meets futuristic imagination. Under the vaults of the Galerie Montpensier, the New York gallery Friedman Benda invites the American designer Misha Khan to take a different look at the world, through Nothing to see, his very first Parisian exhibition.

An exhibition that transports the visitor into a parallel universe, oscillating between design and magical poetry, between craftsmanship and imagination.

With Nothing to see, Misha Kahn signs a joyful manifesto against visual evidence. From the title, he sets the tone: here, it is not about “seeing” in the classical sense, but about experiencing, feeling, and perceiving differently.

Kahn offers a sensory journey where each work defies expectations. The viewer is invited to lose themselves in the reflections, to touch the materials, to explore the volumes as if exploring an unknown planet. This has nothing to do, then, with conventional design, which often seeks purity of line and clarity of function.

At the heart of the route, the monumental installation Azimuth immediately establishes itself as the sensory pivot of the exhibition. Made up of mirrors with kaleidoscopic reflections, it immerses the visitor in a moving, almost unstable space, where celestial trajectories become a pretext for introspection. Inspired by ancient methods of astronomical calculation, this device transforms the observer into a cosmic traveler, suspended between reality and illusion.

"As if the work reflected our deep desire to confront our own abyss."

Here, mirrors fragment light, distort perspectives, and transform space into a giant kaleidoscope. Visitors become astronauts of their own psyche, confronted with multiple reflections and imaginary stellar trajectories.

In this shimmering journey, the boundaries between interior and exterior, between oneself and the world, gently fade, leaving room for a field of perceptive experimentation.

Around this central installation gravitate works never before seen in France, where the furniture becomes sculpture, and the function a pretext for play.

• The armchair Double Shuck Pea (2023), with its organic curves and generous textures, evokes both a giant shell and a strange creature escaped from a dream.

• Side tables A Case of the Tofu Coated Wires (2023) et Beach Based (2024), with their deliciously absurd names, combine wood, copper and glass in an alchemy where each material dialogues with the other.

• A series of dreamlike lights completes this set, affirming the technical mastery and aesthetic freedom of the artist.

Each piece is conceived as a living organism, more than a simple piece of furniture. The shapes seem to vibrate, wavering between marine creature and cosmic artifact. The exhibition thus becomes a invitation to playful introspection, a sensory stroll in a world where matter comes to life.

Born in 1989 in Duluth, a small town in Minnesota bordered by lakes and forests, Misha Kahn grew up far from the big design metropolises. Trained at the Rhode Island School of Design, he quickly moved away from the minimalist dogmas which dominated the international scene at the time.

In his work, there are no pure lines or smooth surfaces, but a strong taste for tinkering, repurposing, and excess. His works are hybrid assemblages where ancestral craft techniques, found objects, and digital tools like 3D printing and virtual reality coexist.

In his work, maximalism becomes manifest. Formal exuberance, far from gratuitous, opens doors to imaginary worlds where the functional flirts with the whimsical: plant-based furniture, inflatable vinyl chandeliers, chimerical sofas blending wool, stainless steel, and resin.

Quickly noticed by the international scene, Kahn exhibited from New York to Seoul, via Milan and Tokyo. His works are included in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Corning Museum of Glass and Dallas Museum of Art, major institutions of design and contemporary art.

In 2022, his exposure Under the Wobble Moon at the Museum Villa Stuck in Munich marks a turning point: Kahn is no longer just an exuberant creator, he becomes a conceptual artist, capable of exploring the fault lines of our time through extravagant forms.

His artistic approach is also nourished by collaborations with artisans from around the world.

En Eswatini, he works with local weavers for the series Scrappy Series ;

à Brooklyn, he collaborates with glass blowers;

au Mexico, with metal and stone sculptors.

This constant dialogue between traditional know-how and technological innovation gives rise to profoundly human pieces, where the artisanal gesture meets the promises of digital technology.

Since its creation in 2007, the gallery Friedman Benda has established itself as one of the essential platforms for contemporary design. Championing creators who challenge the boundaries between art and function, between sculpture and furniture, it has revealed major figures such as Wendell Castle, Joris Laarman ou Faye Toogood.

In Paris, it was only natural that she would invest in the Galerie Montpensier at the Palais Royal, providing a heritage setting for Kahn's plastic experiments. A subtle dialogue is thus established between the classical architecture of the space and the designer's unbridled forms, between past and future.

“If you give people some breathing room, they will happily jump into a new version of reality.”

This phrase by Misha Kahn resonates like a manifesto. The exhibition doesn't just present objects; it offers a change of perspective. An incentive to leave the beaten track of everyday life and venture into parallel worlds made of reflections, living materials, and chimerical objects.

Dance Nothing to see, this quest takes the form of a joyful escape from conventional reality, where the viewer becomes an actor in a constantly changing universe. Through his works, Kahn opens a sensory breach in our perception of design, reminding us that the marvelous can emerge where we least expect it.

Dates: June 25 → July 9, 2025

Location:  Montpensier Gallery, Palais Royal, 15 Montpensier Gallery, 75001 Paris

Hours: 10am – 19pm, every day / Free entry