Lev Khesin
WORKS
Lev Khesin | Tosiduln | 2025 | Silikon, Pigmente auf Holz | 49 x 36 cm
Lev Khesin | Larruc | 2025 | Silikon, Pigmente auf Holz | 47 x 36 cm
Lev Khesin | Usneur | 2024 | Silikon, Pigmente auf Holz | 55 x 50 cm
ARTIST Info
Lev Khesin
Lev Khesin’s works operate at a threshold where painting takes on an almost corporeal presence. They derive their impact from an intensely sensual, materially rich surface that invites a mode of perception in which seeing becomes, in a sense, a form of touch.
The material he employs unites seemingly contradictory qualities: it appears both dense and lightweight, evoking associations that are at once organic and industrial. These tensions exert a particular fascination, yet can also be disorienting. Areas of sharp precision emerge alongside zones that resist clear definition.
For Khesin, realism does not mean the imitation of visible forms. Rather, his interest lies in the hidden orders of nature, in geological, hydrological, and cellular structures that shape matter. He seeks to trace these forces as physical processes within the work itself, rendering them perceptible and experientially tangible.
At its core, the work is not concerned with presenting a finished result, but with the process of inquiry itself. Each piece evolves through an exchange with the material, a dynamic interplay between deliberate intervention and conscious openness. The studio becomes a site of experimentation, where chance occurrences, shifts, and unexpected transformations actively shape the work’s development. The outcome remains open-ended; reason and intuition are interwoven. In this way, multilayered pictorial spaces emerge, evoking processes of growth, decay, and transformation.
BIOGRAPHY
1981
Born in Penza, Russia
1996–1999
Savitski Penza College of Art Education
2002–2008
Berlin University of the Arts, master student of Prof. Frank Badur
2005
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA
2009
Artist residency at Studio Kura, Fukuoka, Japan
Lives and works in Berlin and Barcelona.
AWARDS & SCHOLARSHIPS
2005
NICA Fellowship, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA
2008
Project grant from the Stella Art Foundation, Moscow, Russia
2009
Artist in Residence at Studio Kura, Fukuoka, Japan
2010
Tempelhof-Schöneberg Art Prize
2017
Artist in Residence, Tulum, Mexico
2022
Artist in Residence, Mark Rothko Art Centre, Daugavpils, Latvia
EXHIBITIONS
EXHIBITIONS (SELECTION)
2020er
2026
Art Karlsruhe, Evelyn Drewes | Galerie, Karlsruhe
2025
El peso de la Luz, Galerie SMUDAJESCHECK, München
BEL ÉTAGE, Galerie Anja Knoess x Leuenroth x Evelyn Drewes | Galerie, Köln
Charity Auction Preview Exhibition, Museum Ulm
Be Art Fair, Castello Belgioioso, Italien
Fast Nichts, Sebastian Fath Contemporary, Mannheim
Nova, 24 Beaubourg, Paris, Frankreich
ALL IN #2, Drewes | Galerie, Hamburg
Intermezzo, 24 Beaubourg, Paris, Frankreich
Overview 2025, Galerie Maximilian Hutz, Hard, Österreich
Play of Color, Till Richter Museum, Buggenhagen
BEL ÉTAGE, galerie burster x Evelyn Drewes | Galerie, Karlsruhe
Into the Depth, Kunstverein Friedberg
ALL IN, Drewes | Galerie, Hamburg
BAF25, Bergamo, Italien
2024
Roter Kunstsalon, Museum Villa Rot, Burgrieden
same same but different, galerie burster x Evelyn Drewes | Galerie, Berlin
BIOS, Evelyn Drewes | Galerie, Hamburg
Westend Artspace, Melbourne, Australien
Haecceitas, Sebastian Fath Contemporary, Mannheim
Orange is the Color of my Dreams, SMUDAJESCHECK, München
2023
ArteA Gallery, Mailand, Italien
Positions, Berlin
Expoarte Montichiari, Artea Gallery, Montichiari, Italien
Lab/Redundancy, Evelyn Drewes | Galerie, Hamburg