Carla Klein: KM21, Netherlands

In her typically large-scale oil paintings, Carla Klein (Netherlands, b.1970) explores and bends our image of reality. While she based previous work on her own analogue photography, her recent work takes easily reproducible prints as their point of departure. Klein is attracted to the abstraction of a landscape, and is intrigued by the way the same site can appear simultaneously flat and deep. Many works illustrate artifacts of the imaging process – white borders on the canvas suggest cropping, drips of paint reference scratches on the surface of the negative – which the artist describes as the “abstract consequence” of the source material. Balancing materiality and illusion, Klein challenges the notion of recognizability and representation. KM21 presents new and recent work by Klein in her first Dutch museum solo exhibition.

Since the mid-1990s, Klein has exhibited her work consistently throughout Europe and the United States. Recent notable exhibitions include a two-person presentation of Carla Klein and Marlene Dumas, Museum voor Modern Realisme, Ruurlo, the Netherlands (2017) and a solo presentation at the Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri (2015). In 2005, the artist held an important solo exhibition at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, CA, followed by a presentation at Jarla Partilager, Stockholm (2007). Her paintings have also been shown in group exhibitions at the Bass Museum of Art in Miami, FL; Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH; Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen and Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam; and Denver Art Museum, among others. Klein’s work is included in the permanent collections of the Berkeley Art Museum, CA; Miami Art Museum, FL; Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam; Gemeentemuseum, The Hague; and Thermenmuseum, Heerlen, The Netherlands.

Photo by Peter Cox