Miriam Cahn

Miriam Cahn, born in 1949 in Basel, is a contemporary Swiss artist. The artist's training takes place at the applied art school called Gewerbeschule from 1968 to 1975 in the graphics section. She currently lives and works in Basel.

At the end of his training on the mastery of graphic design, the artist wishes to turn away from this mastery of art to orient himself towards drawing and also develop his work around sculpture, sound, performance or photography. Miriam Cahn realizes her productions with chalk and charcoal on paper, on walls but also in public spaces outside without prior authorization. At the end of the 1980s, his artistic productions experienced a formal break. The artist uses color and gradually begins to paint. She uses in particular oil painting from the 1990s which is today emblematic of her artistic production.

Among the themes dear to the artist we can cite blurred female silhouettes, children, landscapes seen from an aerial angle. We can notice that the women represented by the artist are slender, with spectral gaits and empty eyes.

The artist deals with social and political subjects such as the situation of refugees, armed conflicts. We can observe these themes in his exhibition Devoir-Aimer in Paris in 2017. Indeed, we can observe at the Jocelyn Wolff gallery a selection of 'works by the artist on the theme of the conflict in Syria and the drama of migrants. The artist expresses the effects of conflicts directly through his works. One can blatantly observe the injuries, the violence in his paintings entitled Desaster or Herumlaufen. Miriam Cahn chooses to paint nude subjects in her paintings, which shows all the more the vulnerability of the subjects.

Miriam Cahn's works have been exhibited in various galleries around the world. Among these are the Jocelyon Wolff gallery in Paris, the Meyer-Riegger gallery in Berlin, the Ulrike Schmela gallery in Dusseldorf or the Elizabeth Dee gallery in New York.