Rae Klein, Golden Window, 2023 oil on linen 182.88h x 213.36w cm
Rae Klein’s new exhibition provides Jungian commentary on the ever-evolving battle royale between man and nature from a feminine perspective. With this body of work, Klein distills her surrealist vocabulary down to a few familiar objects largely stripped of context and presented with a haunting (and often threatening) serenity. POWERPLAY is the Michigan-based artist’s third exhibition at Nicodim Gallery.
Rae Klein: POWERPLAY. Installation View, Nicodim New York. Courtesy of the Artist and Nicodim.
Rae Klein, Is there a better man than I?, 2023 oil on linen 182.88h x 274.32w cm
While Klein typically depicts her subjects as floating in the sky or over monochromatic planes, her protagonists are not without a common thread—each composition contains at least passing reference to mankind’s attempts to assert its mastery over the feral world. Her airplanes are metal tubes that subvert our species’ inability to fly, her windows drive a wedge between us and the elements, her candelabras keep our nights illuminated while the sun is asleep, her table settings ensure that we will never have to eat with our hands, her horses and dogs have been bred for generations to highlight traits beneficial to their masters. Her renderings are washed-out, and while not sepia-toned in hue, the brushwork lends the airy feel of nostalgia and subtly suggests that the ideologies contained within are weathered and dated.
Rae Klein: POWERPLAY. Installation View, Nicodim New York. Courtesy of the Artist and Nicodim.
Rae Klein, Burn to the Ground II, 2023 oil on linen 127h x 106.68w cm
Rae Klein, Double Emmy, 2023 oil on linen 213.36h x 182.88w cm
Rae Klein, Detail, Women and Dogs, 2023 oil on linen 213.36h x 365.76w cm
Rae Klein, Power Play, 2023 oil on linen 213.36h x 365.76w cm
Three gargantuan diptychs center piece the exhibition. In Power Play two disembodied female hairdos hover within a black void, while a revolver, two dogs, and two commercial jetliners float where the faces should be. Women and Dogs continues this motif, only this time the hairpieces are suspended in a skyscape with two English Pointers pointing at one another in the foreground, perhaps to pass blame for their current purgatory. Each piece serves as a stage set of sorts, the objects within them akin to Chekhov’s gun, loaded with some impending, yet-to-be-defined action or chaos. Their monumental scale inherently implies that whatever is to come, if it ever comes, it will be consequential.
Rae Klein, Little Scheme, 2023 oil on linen 213.36h x 365.76w cm
Rae Klein, Dog with Red Curtain, 2023 oil on linen 182.88h x 213.36w cm
POWERPLAY is an exhibition of pregnant pauses, silences sticky with the threat of future storms. While man has exploited loopholes in the natural order in an attempt to replace God with his own image, Klein’s paintings suggest that this line of existence is frail and tenuous at best. If not imminent, a reckoning is pending at the very least.
All images courtesy of the Artist and Nicodim. Photography by Shark Senesac / New Document.
Rae Klein’s Power Play
Rae Klein, Golden Window, 2023 oil on linen
182.88h x 213.36w cm
Rae Klein’s new exhibition provides Jungian commentary on the ever-evolving battle royale between man and nature from a feminine perspective. With this body of work, Klein distills her surrealist vocabulary down to a few familiar objects largely stripped of context and presented with a haunting (and often threatening) serenity. POWERPLAY is the Michigan-based artist’s third exhibition at Nicodim Gallery.
Rae Klein: POWERPLAY. Installation View, Nicodim New York. Courtesy of the Artist and Nicodim.
Rae Klein, Is there a better man than I?, 2023 oil on linen
182.88h x 274.32w cm
While Klein typically depicts her subjects as floating in the sky or over monochromatic planes, her protagonists are not without a common thread—each composition contains at least passing reference to mankind’s attempts to assert its mastery over the feral world. Her airplanes are metal tubes that subvert our species’ inability to fly, her windows drive a wedge between us and the elements, her candelabras keep our nights illuminated while the sun is asleep, her table settings ensure that we will never have to eat with our hands, her horses and dogs have been bred for generations to highlight traits beneficial to their masters. Her renderings are washed-out, and while not sepia-toned in hue, the brushwork lends the airy feel of nostalgia and subtly suggests that the ideologies contained within are weathered and dated.
Rae Klein: POWERPLAY. Installation View, Nicodim New York. Courtesy of the Artist and Nicodim.
Rae Klein, Burn to the Ground II, 2023 oil on linen
127h x 106.68w cm
Rae Klein, Double Emmy, 2023 oil on linen
213.36h x 182.88w cm
Rae Klein, Detail, Women and Dogs, 2023 oil on linen
213.36h x 365.76w cm
Rae Klein, Power Play, 2023
oil on linen
213.36h x 365.76w cm
Three gargantuan diptychs center piece the exhibition. In Power Play two disembodied female hairdos hover within a black void, while a revolver, two dogs, and two commercial jetliners float where the faces should be. Women and Dogs continues this motif, only this time the hairpieces are suspended in a skyscape with two English Pointers pointing at one another in the foreground, perhaps to pass blame for their current purgatory. Each piece serves as a stage set of sorts, the objects within them akin to Chekhov’s gun, loaded with some impending, yet-to-be-defined action or chaos. Their monumental scale inherently implies that whatever is to come, if it ever comes, it will be consequential.
Rae Klein, Little Scheme, 2023 oil on linen
213.36h x 365.76w cm
Rae Klein, Dog with Red Curtain, 2023 oil on linen
182.88h x 213.36w cm
POWERPLAY is an exhibition of pregnant pauses, silences sticky with the threat of future storms. While man has exploited loopholes in the natural order in an attempt to replace God with his own image, Klein’s paintings suggest that this line of existence is frail and tenuous at best. If not imminent, a reckoning is pending at the very least.
All images courtesy of the Artist and Nicodim. Photography by Shark Senesac / New Document.