Harry Dodge and Stanya Kahn

Biography

In the video works of the Los Angeles duo Harry Dodge and Stanya Kahn, the artists approach the alienation and violence of contemporary American life with absurdist humor. Dodge and Kahn's collaborative, performance-based videos inhabit an urban L.A. landscape that evokes both the everyday and the post-apocalyptic. In deadpan performances and elliptical narratives, Dodge and Kahn infuse their uncanny visions of Bush's America with wit, dread and longing.

Harriet "Harry" Dodge was born in San Francisco, California in 1966. Stanya Kahn was born in San Francisco, California in 1968. They first met in 1993 in San Francisco, and began collaborating in 2001, when they moved to Los Angeles. In 2003 Dodge and Kahn each received an MFA from Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts, Bard College, New York. Their work has been exhibited in solo shows at Elizabeth Dee Gallery, New York, and in numerous group exhibitions, including the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture, Moscow, Russia; Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany; Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius, Lithuania; Portland Institute of Contemporary Art, Oregon; the 2008 Whitney Biennial Exhibition, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; The Getty Center, Los Angeles; Los Angeles Contemporary Art Exhibitions; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York; Art in General, New York; and Hallwalls Art Space, Buffalo, New York, among many others. Their video works have been widely shown in film festivals, including the Sundance Film Festival, Park City, Utah; New York Underground Film Festival; Mix Festival, New York; London Lesbian/Gay International Film Festival; Silverlake Film Festival, Los Angeles; Los Angeles Film Festival; NewFest, New York; San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival; Paris International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival.

Dodge and Kahn both live and work in Los Angeles.