Art Kleinman Structure and Chaos: A Delicate Balance

Opening Saturday April 22, 2023

On view from April 22 - June 18, 2023

CHICAGO, IL—The Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art is thrilled to host our new exhibition Art Kleinman Structure and Chaos: A Delicate Balance featuring paintings by Art Kleinman. With a career that has spanned over 50 years, Kleinman has worked though several styles: from action painting, system driven abstraction, geometric abstraction, figurative portraiture, political satire, to his current works which incorporate elements of all his styles that came before. Since 2016, Kleinman. has revisited geometric abstraction of the 1980s that transitioned from utilizing the grid as a foundation to incorporating many angles, curvature, flexuous lines in which allows each painting to create their own visual language. Kleinman relies on his intuition and instincts to make the right stylistic choices. He finds this process creates a tension between structure and chaos.

“The exhibition isn’t billed as a travel industry trade show, but, with these paintings, Kleinman clearly invites us to take adventuresome trips. The routes and the sights are not for the faint of heart. His daring use of visual language asks us to gamble, too. Our chips are bought with time. The journey I describe is one that I found in Art’s work. Of course, Kleinman put it there for me to discover. There is not a single bit of color, line, or shape that the artist has not deliberately placed where it is in order for us to find the paths I did, or the paths you will. There are many paths through each of these paintings and they all have to work together simultaneously. Kleinman has considered each route to make sure none lead to dead-ends, much as a sculptor considers that a viewer must receive a rewarding visual experience, no matter from what vantage point.”

Excerpt from the catalogue essay written by John Himmelfarb, an American artist who has been exhibiting nationally since 1968.

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