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Email PageForces of Nature
September 5, 2006- September 30, 2006
Reception: September 7, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Ron Klein
Howard Scott Gallery
529 W 20th St
Howard Scott Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition by the Philadelphia-based artist, Ron Klein, which will open to the public on Tuesday, 5 September 2006 and run through Saturday, 30 September.
Mr Klein's work is rooted in his lifelong fascination with the manner in which man's understanding of both his own self and the world he inhabits is greatly predicated upon the individual's degree of interest in, and sensitivity to, the objects which surround one in daily life - whether these be tangible objects of the natural world or objects designed by and manufactured by man to fulfill a perceived, practical need. Klein's passionate attraction to the material of the natural world has taken him, during the past fifteen years, to such remote locales as Madagascar, Burma (Myanmar), and Amazonian and Costa Rican rainforests. He has gradually focused on certain forms from the realm of flora which hold special appeal for him, and perhaps not surprisingly, they are not only elements which have a longer span of existence once separated from the growing entity which produced them, but also ones which possess an inherent sculptural presence - namely the vessels in which seeds are contained and from which they are eventually cast forth for the propagation of the species.
While searching for particularly remarkable examples of seed pods - astounding sometimes in their sheer scale, he has become acquainted with the populations which inhabit these exotic places and - inescapably - with the growing threat to the continued existence of their highly individual societal and cultural structures, long protected by the degree of remoteness from routes of exploration, commerce, tourism, and exploitation, but increasingly less so. His concern for the spiritual and physical well-being of these threatened populations has imbued aspects of his work with a tangible sense of missionary zeal and possibly even a sense of mysticism - quite separate from the purely formal concerns of a sculptor living in a world of increasingly conceptualized works of art.
It has been Klein's chosen task to find ways of establishing a cohesive visual relationship between the plant-derived materials which he gathers with considerable difficulty and the urban detritus which could easily be gathered by any city dweller and which he incorporates into his works. He has spoken of the urban castoffs as constituting - for him - a vast library of shapes and forms. Bringing into a compelling visual balance the physical manifestations of untrammeled nature and the unwanted leftovers of an increasingly technological world could be considered the principal motivating force behind his work.
A maker of large-scale works employing concerns and language of drawing, sculpture, and installation works, Klein has evolved a use of densely configured assemblages - most frequently wall-sited - which partake of one of the most interesting forms of composition in modern art, the "allover" structure, which is, itself, a method of composition also found in utilitarian and decorative works made in many disparate cultures over millennia - from Islamic decoration of walls, carpets, and objects to medieval, European tapestries. Klein's practice of pinning to a flat surface materials gathered from nature both parallels the ages-old methods of botanists, lepidopterists, and other scientists (for the preservation and study of the materials) and accommodates his usage of an "allover" compositional structure - giving his work a powerful graphic, as well as sculptural, presence. His using specific, [usually] non-rectangular silhouettes - the mandala, the diamond, the fan-shaped, to cite a few - further emphasizes the dramatic presence of his large-scale works.
Ron Klein began exhibiting publicly in 1984. His work has been seen, since then, most extensively in the Philadelphia area. In 1987, his work was included in a group exhibition at the not-for-profit exhibition space, White Columns, in New York. He recently had a solo exhibition at Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts, in Wilmington, titled Inside Out and accompanied by a brochure with an essay by the curator of the exhibition, J. Susan Isaacs. The forthcoming exhibition at Howard Scott Gallery will be his first one-person exhibition in New York. Among the honors his work has been accorded are five grants from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, and four sculpture fellowships awarded by The Pollock - Krasner Foundation.
Books and DVDs related to artists in this show
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