September 4, 2003

Last Chance to Catch Avoda Exhibit at MOCRA

Tobi Kahn, Orah. 1987. Acrylic on wood.

Saint Louis University's Museum of Contemporary Religious Art (MOCRA) is pleased to present a new exhibition by New York artist Tobi Kahn, "Avoda: Objects of the Spirit." MOCRA will display "Avoda" Tuesday, Sept. 2, through Sunday, Oct. 12.

There will be a free public reception with the artist from 2 to 5 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 7. The event will include a panel discussion from 2 to 3:15 p.m. The museum is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and is located at 3700 West Pine Mall. Admission is free. Call (314) 977- 7170 for more information.

Kahn is an internationally acclaimed painter and sculptor. His work has been shown in 30 solo exhibitions and more than 60 group and museum shows since he was selected as one of nine artists to be included in the 1985 Guggenheim Museum exhibition, "New Horizons in American Art."

His work is found in the collections of major institutions throughout the United States, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and The Jewish Museum, New York. His commissions include a large outdoor sculpture at New Harmony, Ind., and two Holocaust memorial gardens, in Tenafly, N.J, and La Jolla, Calif. A retrospective exhibition of Kahn's painting and sculpture curated by Peter Selz, Metamorphoses, was shown at MOCRA in 1998.

Avoda is the Hebrew noun for "work," as well as for "prayer/worship," and the active mode implied by this title reflects Kahn's interpretation of the rising interest and active participation in spiritual expressions. The "Avoda" exhibition consists of 42 Jewish ceremonial objects that demonstrate Kahn's interpretation of old and new ritual observances, as well as his artistic commitment to natural forms. Those familiar with Kahn's paintings and sculpture will recognize common elements in the palette, textures, and organic forms of these works. Dr. Douglas Dreishpoon, Curator of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, N.Y., notes that Kahn "Tobi Kahn's involvement with Judaica is both a natural and inevitable extension of his painting and sculpture."

Yet these are highly personal works, created as they were for ritual moments in the life of his family: a chair created for his son's circumcision ceremony, child-sized spice boxes used in Sabbath observances. Exhibition curator Laura Kruger writes that these works are "strikingly contemporary in their refusal to allude to familiar and domestic conventions of Judaica. Instead, they point to a sacred and mysterious realm, beyond conscious knowledge, while retaining Kahn's persisting commitment to the hand of the artist. For Kahn, these objects are fashioned not only to be used but to be handed down as embodiments of love and community."

To encourage reflection on the role of rituals in our daily lives and as part of the exhibition programming, Kahn and trained assistants will offer a series of workshops at MOCRA and at area schools. There is a particular interest in reaching out to high school and university students. Kruger emphasizes, "while the current interest in spirituality cuts across age, ethnic and economic lines, it is during the college years that most young adults define their moral and ethical identities." The workshops will include hands-on art making as well as discussion. Please contact MOCRA for details about educational programming.

Exhibition curator Kruger says of the works in "Avoda," "In their spare, meditative grace, these devotional objects express Kahn's conviction that art can be a means of exaltation." MOCRA is pleased to bring to St. Louis audiences the opportunity both to enjoy and appreciate Kahn's Judaica, but also to come through them to a deeper understanding of their own faith traditions as well as those of others.