Archive for October, 2007

SALT Gallery had a short Q&A session with one of the SALT artists, Seattle sculptor Renée Kleemann about inspiration, life changes, and some intriguing new projects.

SALT: What do you wish your art to communicate to the public?

RK: I see art as a dialogue. Each work is an opportunity for me to exchange ideas with the viewer. I hope that my art may show the viewer how the human form and its emotional expression is something to be intrigued by, admired, lost in, moved by. In return, there is a huge variety of what viewers see and tell me when they look at any given piece. That feedback often gives me insight into myself or into them.

SALT: Which artist or artistic movement has been most influential for you?

RK: Tamara de Lempicka, a painter of the Art Deco period has influenced me and my work the most. I began honing the way I stylized the human form before I happened upon her work and found her style resonnated with my own.

SALT: Describe your artistic technique and why it is unique.

RK: I model my figures in clay. From there I take a mold, a wax, another mold and finally the bronze is poured. Most sculptors will leave the original texture they get, once in bronze. Although it requires considerable more time, I choose to sand much of my work to create a smooth, pristine surface that begs the viewer to touch it, feel it, caress it. I believe sculpture is meant to be handled, and its tactile nature should be part of the viewer’s interaction.

SALT: Speak a little about your use of symbol & icons and their inspiration for you.

RK: Although I don’t make use of symbols in my work, I do make use of icons. For example, the dyptic “In the Garden” is an iconic representation of the male and female form as opposed to a portrait.

SALT: In your opinion, what should the role be of the artist in society?

RK: I’ve always admired the role of the artist in society as one who challenges accepted norms, points out irony and criticizes government policy. However, there is another role, one that I choose for myself: the role of showing others the beauty in life that surrounds them; of uplifting their spirits; inspiring people to live, to feel, to create, to enjoy the time they have.

SALT: What is currently in your list of projects?

RK: I unfortunately lost a pivotal work-in-progress during the transition of my divorce. It was a life-size bust of a young Burmese boy: bald, in monks clothing, with an expression of caution and wisdom on his face, holding his hands in a namaste greeting. Working in water clay – the sculpture was delicate and was accidentally destroyed during my move. It was 6 months of work and almost complete.

Right now, with having moved out of my studio/house, and not having a studio space for a few more months until I find a new house, I am currently between projects. Which begs the question …

SALT: Exactly: what are your future plans and prospects?

RK: I plan on doing a series of portraits inspired by the photos of Steve McCurry. They will be 4-6″ high instead of life-size.

I also intend to do a series of close-up studies of muscles in unusually contracted positions. It will be done realistically, but cropped in a way that creates abstract landscapes of hills and valleys.

My third project – still conceptualizing – will convey intimacy and connection without being sentimental or too romantic. This will be an attempt to capture and convey some of the emotional transformation I have gone through in the last year.

SALT: We look forward to seeing the new fresh work of Renee’s and wish her luck in the process. Please visit Rennee Kleemann’s gallery here.

By guest writer and St. Croix artist Mike Walsh

The Grossman Gallery at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, under curator Joanna Soltan’s direction seemed to have spared no expense in preparing for the group exhibition ‘’America’s Paradise’ and ‘Isla Del Encanto’: Contemporary Art from the American Caribbean’ comprised of Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico artists. Walls were built to accommodate two large projection video presentations and to create sound separation from other works. The artwork was cleanly lit and displayed in the large Grossman space, next to the school entrance, across Museum Road from the stately Museum of Fine Arts. Only in such special places can fresh paint be odorless- the air was pristine when the doors opened at 5pm, and the space was soon crowded with friends, students, museum staff and the public.

We looked good in that place, the presentation so thoughtfully considered and respectfully executed. As a group we were strong and the salutes of our new-found peers and audience came as something unusual and different, at least in my experience. These people were not my old friends from home who’d observed and expected my antics through the years, whose loyal support had buoyed me over the doubts and tumults of the creative struggle. These were strangers who had made and were making their lives around being the best they could be in an art world environment of the best there had ever been. And here they were, acknowledging us with genuine interest and acceptance. We, of the small art world that is St. Croix, were in the venue we always dreamed of and so far we weren’t doing do too badly. Thinking back to how I got here and how smoothly it had all transpired, I was all the more inspired by how easily Ms. Soltan had appeared in my life and then proceeded to make all this happen as if out of thin air.

Cities have always seduced me and then left me deflated when I’d have to return my real life, its hold on me fading with each passing mile as I made my exit, the changed person I had become easing back into my old self, somehow sadly trapped. The new liberation the city offered came at a price I would not pay, just another illusion like any other entertainment. But this time it was not the same; I had been a participant, not just an observer, and had even left something behind that would linger for while. The city, the market place of ideas brought from around the world had one of mine, made all the more legitimate by the stature of where it was placed

Now, on this particular night, my work was a small part of the stew of creative matter that collects in cities, the stuff that feeds and revitalizes, that sustains the spirit and makes life bearable. Like any food, creativity becomes waste and then nourishment again on the next level; a constant breaking down of matter, always finding itself at some stage of feeding the collective spirit, healthily or not. The stinking rot of ideas decomposing into the ooze of their elements sucked up by the roots sunk deep in the fetid forest floor rising as nourishing sap to the limbs whose blooms, one day, we see in a new form- coming back to us.

Details: The participating artists in ‘’America’s Paradise’ and ‘Isla Del Encanto’: Contemporary Art from the American Caribbean’ are Edgar Endress, Luca Gasperi, Monica Marin, Elsa María Meléndez. Shansi Miller, Erik Pedersen, Maud Pierre-Charles, Quintín Rivera-Toro, Johanna Bermudez Ruiz, Rafael Trelles and Mike Walsh. (Biographies, go here.) The exhibit will be on display from Tuesday, September 18 until Saturday, October 13, 2007 at the Grossman Gallery of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 230 The Fenway, Boston, MA 02115 Phone: Phone: 617-267-6100, Fax: 617-424-6271.