Carla Klein

Annet Gelink Gallery is proud to present new work by the Dutch artist Carla Klein (1970). Klein's paintings strike a balance between the figurative and the abstract in which images seem both visible and invisible, meanings emerge and disappear. There isn't a soul to be seen, nor are there any traces of human life. Nothing is lying on the sofa, there are no swimmers in the swimming pools and the bowling alley is untouched. Klein paints unusual aspects of vision: spaces within spaces and transparent materials like water and glass.

The new series of paintings consists of abstracted landscapes, landing strips, airplanes and architectural models. The artist dissects the forms of her subjects and breaks them into separate geometric shapes. The object that appears to be the focus of the work is given the same blue-green colour as the background. One minute the viewer can make it out, and the next minute it dissolves into the background. Sometimes it seems as if an object can be seen from several different perspectives at a single glance.

Klein often bases her paintings on photography. In the new series of works she makes use of digital photographs as well, employing the limitations of the medium to disturb the order in the painted image. Thus the coarse pixels and spots from her computer print-outs are also worked into the paintings in the form of strange blurs and abstract details. Sometimes even the reflection from her camera's flash can be seen as an abstract white spot whose purpose is to create an intentional disturbance in the work. And when Klein makes a composition of different photos in her computer with a jagged white border surrounding the image, she includes this shape in her paintings without painting it over.