The Desire to be Desired
Simon Klein
Curated by Michelle Klein
6 – 24 April 2022
Private View: Thurs 7 April 6-8pm. Please rsvp.
Artist’s Talk: Sat 16 April at 2.30pm. All welcome!
A new exhibition of oil paintings and works on paper in a variety of media
Dictionary definition of Relationship: the way in which two or more people or things are connected, or the state of being connected.
Simon Klein uses the material qualities of colour to paint human figures in loosely constructed landscapes or interiors, sometimes both. Often lovers or in groups as though they were going someplace or coming from somewhere, they look towards each other or by looking out, invite the viewer to enjoy their embodied dream-like state, as if seeing the world through their gaze.
While the figures stem from his imagination, much of Klein’s subject matter is influenced by his marital relationship. His settings are a synonym for experience; whether they are his own or someone else’s, as he says ‘what happens in a painting is a kind of theatre of life no matter how abstract’.
In this exhibition Simon will be showing oil paintings and works on paper in a variety of media from pen and ink sketches to works in oil pastel.
Simon Klein has a BA Fine Art (Hons) Slade 1982, and a MA in Contemporary Art Practice, Kingston University, 1997. After leaving the Slade he received the Boise travelling fellowship and travelled to Florence. He has work in the Ruth Borchard Collection and has recently exhibited at The Discerning eye 2020 and The Pastel Society 2021. His work is held in private collections in England, France, America, New Zealand and Israel.
