Aunia Kahn’s Lush Portraits Depict a Playful Inner Landscape

“For me, it always starts with joy,” explains Aunia Kahn. The Detroit-based artist uses a handful of materials—gouache, pastels, pencils, and gold ink—to create rich, velvety portraits that evoke folk art patterns, surrealist themes, and celestial iconography.

Reclaiming the importance of play in the creative process has been a powerful catalyst for Kahn, who had previously experienced a loss of joy in making amid life-threatening health challenges. “That playfulness led me straight back to my roots, to growing up in Michigan and spending time in Canada, to the German and Polish folk art that filled my grandparents’ home,” she says. “I realized that world of bold color, rich pattern, and maximalist symbolism had already shaped my home, my wardrobe, and the way I moved through life. My art just needed to catch up.”

a folk-art inspired portrait by Aunia Kahn, depicting a red horse galloping against a star-filled sky. floral and avian motifs pattern around the middle and out toward the borders of the piece — “Dissolved Into The Spirit That Outruns Fear”

When she’s not in the studio, Kahn is busy curating exhibitions as the co-owner of Poetic Tiger Gallery and is Editor-in-Chief of Hyperlux Magazine. Find more work on the artist’s website, and keep up with her many adventures on Instagram.

a folk-art inspired portrait by Aunia Kahn, depicting a woman holding a large heart with a singular eye in its center. floral and avian motifs pattern around the middle and out toward the borders of the piece. — “Where the Eye of the Heart Watches Over Every Living Thing”

a folk-art inspired portrait by Aunia Kahn, depicting a woman wearing a dress that displays a countryside landscape. floral and avian motifs pattern around the middle and out toward the borders of the piece. — “We Hold Every Goodbye in Our Body Like a Landscape”

a folk-art inspired portrait by Aunia Kahn, depicting a woman with long hair riding a red horse. floral and avian motifs pattern around the middle and out toward the borders of the piece. — “Historical Altar Of Ones Own Becoming”

a folk-art inspired portrait by Aunia Kahn, depicting a woman with three birds in her hair. floral and avian motifs pattern around the middle and out toward the borders of the piece. — “Litany of Twilight Beyond Karmic Prophesies”

a folk-art inspired portrait by Aunia Kahn, depicting a woman with her head floating above her body. floral and avian motifs pattern around the middle and out toward the borders of the piece. — “The Impossible Physics of Staying Whole”

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