Artist: Mitchell Kehe
Exhibition title: Who’s the Best at Believing
Venue: 15 Orient, New York, US
Date: September 11 – October 10, 2021
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and 15 Orient, New York
15 Orient is delighted to announce the opening of “Who’s the Best at Believing”; Mitchell Kehe’s second solo exhibition at the gallery.
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Faced with whatever comes next, Henry braces herself, then relaxes again realizing she has no idea what it is she’s bracing for or what bracing might do or prevent in whatever comes next. She’s kneeling on the carpet gripping with her right hand a bunched-up sweatshirt. She’s skimming the balled up sweatshirt along the carpet like the belly of an overfed cat . The cat belly might hover just a few millimeters of the surface of the carpet with only belly hairs meeting the fbers; cat fbers meeting carpet fbers. But there’s no cat right now, it’s just Henry and the scrunched-up sweatshirt.
But here comes the cat, quite fat with long orange and white hair. The creamsicle cat has one crushed ear. It happened in a previous life as a street cat before the current life of being fed too much and the hanging belly and the carpet. Now both the wadded-up sweatshirt and the belly are skimming along the carpet. One is very interested in what the other is doing but it is not mutual; the other couldn’t care less about the one. The carpet is a kind of robin’s egg blue with a darker blue pattern of dime-sized fower-like shapes, tulips. Henry braces herself again for whatever comes next.
If the cat arriving was the previous whatever comes next then the bracing was probably wasted. But what if this next whatever comes next is bigger and requires preparation? She fgures all she can do is position herself so, if needs be, she is able to stand up quickly. She tilts back onto her toes, lifting her knees into a squat so she’s able to continue the skimming. This is a far less comfortable position for the activity so the skimming is much jerkier as she tries to maintain her balance. And now she’s fallen over.
It’s hard to tell if the falling over was the latest whatever comes next or if there was a whatever comes next that was avoided by squatting and this was simply a consequence of over-preparation and an antsy predisposition. From her fallen-over position Henry continues skimming and it is a pleasure. It’s a diferent angle and a diferent kind of satisfaction. She can see the minute distance she’s maintaining between the two things as the one coasts over the other. In her previous kneeling position she was enjoying the sensation of not being able to see how far above the carpet she was skimming but feeling the distance, maybe it was a static electricity or something or maybe who knows how she felt it – we have no idea what the body is capable of. Also, maybe because she has had her spleen taken out her sensitivities are diferent from someone else’s and certainly diferent from the cat’s, though they are both really enjoying the skimming of the sweatshirt, interrupted occasionally by their individual anxieties about whatever comes next.
Mitchell Kehe (b. 1984) lives and works in Queens, New York. In 2016, he received a MFA from the Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam, NL. Kehe’s work has been featured in recent solo and group exhibitions including; “Reassembly” (2021) at Galerie Nordenhake, SE, “All the World’s Organs” (2019) at 15 Orient, NY, and “Assemble Relatives” (2016) at the Ramfoundation, NL.
Mitchell Kehe, Who’s the Best at Believing, 2021, installation view, 15 Orient, New York
Mitchell Kehe, “Learning to love the worm in the apple”, 2021, Oil stick, enamel, charcoal, acrylic paint, collaged fabric on panel with aluminum artist frame
Mitchell Kehe, “Learning to love the worm in the apple”, 2021, Oil stick, enamel, charcoal, acrylic paint, collaged fabric on panel with aluminum artist frame
Mitchell Kehe, Who’s the Best at Believing, 2021, installation view, 15 Orient, New York
Mitchell Kehe, “Soup 1”, 2020, oil stick, enamel, charcoal on panel with aluminum artist frame
Mitchell Kehe, “Soup 1”, 2020, oil stick, enamel, charcoal on panel with aluminum artist frame
Mitchell Kehe, Who’s the Best at Believing, 2021, installation view, 15 Orient, New York
Mitchell Kehe, “Soup 15”, 2021, oil stick, acrylic paint, charcoal, flocking on canvas with aluminum artist frame
Mitchell Kehe, “Who’s the best at believing”, 2018, oil pastel and collaged fabric on panel
Mitchell Kehe, “Who’s the best at believing”, 2018, oil pastel and collaged fabric on panel
Mitchell Kehe, “Same Time, Same Speed”, 2020, oil stick, oil pastel, acrylic paint, PVA, and collaged fabric on board with aluminum artist frame
Mitchell Kehe, “Same Time, Same Speed”, 2020, oil stick, oil pastel, acrylic paint, PVA, and collaged fabric on board with aluminum artist frame
Mitchell Kehe, Who’s the Best at Believing, 2021, installation view, 15 Orient, New York
Mitchell Kehe, “Soup 14”, 2021, oil stick, enamel, acrylic paint, charcoal, flocking, on canvas with aluminum artist frame
Mitchell Kehe, “Soup 14”, 2021, oil stick, enamel, acrylic paint, charcoal, flocking, on canvas with aluminum artist frame
Mitchell Kehe, Who’s the Best at Believing, 2021, installation view, 15 Orient, New York
Mitchell Kehe, “Crab”, 2021, flocking and oil stick on stretched fabric with aluminum artist frame
Mitchell Kehe, Who’s the Best at Believing, 2021, installation view, 15 Orient, New York
Mitchell Kehe, “Like a ringing bell that tells you what it is”, 2021, oil stick, acrylic paint, flocking, collaged fabric, faux leather on panel
“Like a ringing bell that tells you what it is”, 2021, oil stick, acrylic paint, flocking, collaged fabric, faux leather on panel
“Like a ringing bell that tells you what it is”, 2021, oil stick, acrylic paint, flocking, collaged fabric, faux leather on panel
Mitchell Kehe, Who’s the Best at Believing, 2021, installation view, 15 Orient, New York
Mitchell Kehe, “Complex life”, 2021, oil stick, oil paint, acrylic paint, enamel, flocking on stretched vinyl
Mitchell Kehe, Who’s the Best at Believing, 2021, installation view, 15 Orient, New York
Mitchell Kehe, “Soup 16”, 2021, oil stick, enamel, charcoal and flocking on panel
