Official Opening of Rückenfigur at Queenscliff Gallery

Gaye Britt

Pictured above and below are selected highlights from yesterday afternoon’s launch of my solo show, Rückenfigur, at Queenscliff Gallery. A million thanks to all who came, including many who traveled from far and wide in somewhat inclement weather, to those who acquired works and to Queenscliff Gallery’s Theo and Soula Mantalvanos for making it all happen. 

To explore the exhibition in 3D, go here: https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=wki33M1KvV3

Soula Mantalvanos, myself, Dmetri Kakmi and Christine Hickson 

Peter Cooper and Carole Wilson 

Christine Hickson and Shane Jones

Soula Mantalvanos and Godwin Bradbeer

Kathryn Ryan, Antonio Baletta and Brendan Ryan

Terrence Morse and Beth

With Eugene Barilo von Reisberg 

Centre - right: Shane Jones, Christine Hickson, Libby Drew and Scott Bain

Lisa Sassella and Bill Reid

Shirley Ploog and Gaye Britt

Gaye Britt, Tim Gresham, myself and Kathryn Ryan

With Michael and Jennifer Fitzgerald  

Dmetri Kakmi and Theo Mantalvanos 

Susan and Antonio Balletta, Scott Bain and Libby Drew

Tim Gresham and Dmetri Kakmi 

Eugene Barilo von Reisberg and Shane Jones

Gaye Britt, Tim Gresham, Brendan Ryan and Kathryn Ryan

Susan Balletta and Brendan Ryan

Myself, Zoe and Soula

Iga and Peter Bajer and family. Peter and Iga were wonderful hosts during my recent residency at Geelong Grammar School. 

Paul Compton and Evan

A post-exhibition coffee at 360Q with these lovely people was one of the day’s highlights.

Clockwise: Shane Jones, myself, Kathryn Ryan, Brendan Ryan, Susan Balletta,

Angela Bourke, Antonio Balletta and Godwin Bradbeer. Thank you to the 

staff member who took the photo. 

Rückenfigur: the zines

 

In an effort to calm pre-exhibition opening nerves, I’ve been keeping my hands busy and my brain reasonably focused by making a couple of eight-page mini-zines. 

Personally, I think zines are pretty cool, not that mine necessarily are. I do enjoy making them though, although it’s been awhile. In August a selection of my books and zines will be on display at the APW in Melbourne and over the next 6 - 12 months, two or three artist books are planned, so it’s good to be getting back in the zone. 

The zines shown here are illustrated with paintings from my show at Queenscliff Gallery and share the same title, Rückenfigur, which, as their subtitles reveal, loosely translates as “the turned figure’”. These are volumes 1 and 2. A third volume is in the pipeline.

The opening event for Rückenfigur, the exhibition, is this afternoon from 2 - 4 pm (see previous post). I know some of you are planning to attend and can’t wait to see you there. 

Waiting in the Wings

Move over, sun, and give me some sky

I’ve got me some wings I’m eager to try

I may be unknown, but wait till I’ve flown

You’re gonna hear from me.*

Pictured above, clockwise: Hidden Wings; Waiting in the Wings; Flight of Fancy; Night Butterfly

Each work: 2021, acrylic on canvas, 12.5 x 12.5 cm.

They have just landed at Queenscliff Gallery for my latest solo show, Rückenfigur,

current to July 10. (Gallery hours: 10 am - 4 pm. Closed Tuesdays).

The Opening Event is this Sunday, 26 June, 2-4 pm. Your invitation is HERE.

QUEENSCLIFF GALLERY | P 03 4202 0942 | 

A | 81 Hesse Street Queenscliff VIC 3225 

*You’re Gonna Hear From Me

Music by André Previn, lyric by Dory Previn

Rückenfigur in ARTIST PROFILE

 

Waiting, 2021, 35(h) x 12.5(w) Diptych, acrylic on canvas

Photo credit: Tim Gresham 

I’m delighted to learn that an article on my solo exhibition, opening tomorrow at Queenscliff Gallery, has been published in Issue #59 of ARTIST PROFILE magazine:

Deborah Klein's recent body of work, "Rückenfigur," explores the textures, techniques, and teachings that structure hidden histories of women's presence in art – both as creators and as subjects. The work represents a return to, and reflexive appraisal of, one of the artist's enduring themes: the (feminine) figure seen from behind.

In an artist’s statement accompanying the exhibition of this body of work at Queenscliff Gallery, Klein writes that the show “addresses a particularly divisive period in our history, when our state of disconnection – from ourselves, from each other and from the natural world – seems greater than ever before.” Her work’s engagement with ideas of disconnection is certainly timely, and well rounded, coming as it does after years of physical distancing from each other, continual environmental crisis, and new digitally-mediated patterns of social engagement which can leave us deeply isolated – by ourselves or in our echo chambers – just as readily as they can connect us. The disconnections which Klein’s work traces, however, are also historical; taking women as her object of fascination, Klein has spent decades asking how women have been obscured, forgotten, or written over in (art) history…

To read the full article, go here: https://artistprofile.com.au/deborah-klein/

Little Girl Blue, 2021, 15.5(h) x 11(w)cm, pigmented drawing ink and gouache 

Rückenfigur runs from June 23 - July 10, 2022.  

Gallery hours: 10 am - 4 pm. Closed Tuesdays.

QUEENSCLIFF GALLERY 

P 03 4202 0942 | A 81 Hesse Street Queenscliff VIC 3225 

When one door closes…

This morning the studio door closed on a major body of work, several of which have singularly personal significance. 

Odalisque, 2022, diptych, acrylic on canvas, 50 x 20 cm

Photo credit: Tim Gresham 

Seeing it all reduced to little more than two boxes, it’s hard to believe that two years of work is sitting there - and then some. But you know what they say about big things coming in small packages...

As many of you are aware, most of the works in these boxes were made during a particularly challenging time in my life. Happily, that time has ended on a positive note, in perfect unison with the completion of the work.

This afternoon we delivered the boxes to Queenscliff Gallery. The next time I see their contents will be on the walls of the gallery.

My solo show, Rückenfigur, opens on June 23.

The opening event is on Sunday, June 26, from 2-4 pm. 

I hope you’ll come along next Sunday to help me celebrate happy endings, new beginnings - and so I can thank you for all your support along the way.

QUEENSCLIFF GALLERY 
P 03 4202 0942 | A 81 Hesse Street Queenscliff VIC 3225 

Gallery hours: 10 am - 4 pm. Closed Tuesdays.

Varnishing Day

Varnishing paintings is an activity that usually strikes terror in my cowardly heart, but with an exhibition fast approaching, I just had to get on with it.

Pictured yesterday: the final varnish freshly applied to the painting component of my forthcoming solo show at Queenscliff Gallery, thankfully without mishap. 

Below: the last of the varnished works at day’s end. Click on images for a clearer view. 

The paintings are now ready for the gallery walls. You can preview all the work HERE, but I hope you’ll have a chance to view it in the flesh. Online is no substitute for the real thing, and a day trip to picturesque seaside Queenscliff is highly recommended.  

DEBORAH KLEIN - RÜCKENFIGUR 

Recent paintings and drawings 

DIARY DATES  

Opening event: Sunday Jun 26, 2pm – 4pm

Exhibition run: Jun 23 – Jul 10, 2022

Gallery hours: 10 am - 4 pm. Closed Tuesdays.

QUEENSCLIFF GALLERY 

P 03 4202 0942 | A 81 Hesse Street Queenscliff VIC 3225

APW George Collie Memorial Print Exhibition - an update

 

This morning’s activity before today’s road trip to Melbourne: packing the last of my works for the imminent APW George Collie Memorial Print Award Exhibition at the Australian Print Workshop. Pictured top: Sister Act, 2000, colour relief print, 64 x 74 cm.

Huge thanks to my partner Shane Jones for his invaluable assistance.

The exhibition, which was originally scheduled for 2020, was postponed due to ongoing COVID lockdowns. It will finally take place in early August. Further information, including dates and times, will be announced shortly.

Lady in Waiting

Lady in Waiting, 2022, diptych, acrylic on canvas, 55.5 x 22.5 cm

Photo credit: Tim Gresham 

Many years ago, I inherited a swag of vintage doilies from my late aunt, Eileen Klein. I had no real use for them, but didn’t have the heart to take them to the thrift shop. For as many years again, they languished in various drawers and cupboards in the flats and houses I’ve inhabited over the decades. Lately, however, they’ve taken on a new life. In Lady in Waiting, 2022 (pictured top) and several other paintings in Rückenfigur, my upcoming solo show at Queenscliff Gallery, they’ve become the basis for my protagonists’ decorative collars and shawls. 

A couple of developmental views are below:

Lady in Waiting nearing completion, May 2022

Progress view of Lady in Waiting with doily and Hans Holbein postcards, April 2022

Images on the postcards pictured above: A Lady with a Squirrel and a Starling, Jane Seymour and Portrait of a Woman from Southern Germany by Hans Holbein the Younger (1497-1543). Holbein’s work has been a source of inspiration since my late teens when my mother presented me with a book of his drawings as a birthday gift.

Rückenfigur opens at Queenscliff Gallery on June 23 and runs to July 10, 2022.

The Opening Event is on Sunday June 26 from 2 - 4 pm.

Queenscliff Gallery 

P 03 4202 0942 | A 81 Hesse Street Queenscliff VIC 3225 

For further information, including an invitation to Rückenfigur, scroll down to my previous post.

Your invitation to RÜCKENFIGUR

  

Attached is an invitation to Rückenfigur, my upcoming solo show at Queenscliff Gallery.

The representation of the feminine personae has long been a subject of art history. The female visage has featured in various depictions in this history – obscured, averted, deformed, glorified, domesticised, dehumanised. In her latest exhibition, artist Deborah Klein builds on this artistic canon of the feminine, offering us the idea of Rückenfigur – "the figure seen from behind.”

Weaving together sewing iconography derived primarily from handmade doilies inherited from her late Aunt Eileen, and motifs of knots and braids, Klein stitches together a story that is as complex as the knots that she depicts; a story of the perpetual outsider where our current state of disconnection – from ourselves, each other and the natural world – is rendered palpable.

- Queenscliff Gallery

The Opening Event is on Sunday June 26 from 2 - 4 pm. I do hope you can join us.

Rückenfigur runs from Jun 23 – Jul 10, 2022.

Gallery hours: 10 am - 4 pm. Closed Tuesdays.

Queenscliff Gallery 

P 03 4202 0942 | A 81 Hesse Street Queenscliff VIC 3225 

World Oceans Day

In acknowledgment of World Oceans Day, which falls today:

Image: Deborah KLEIN, Not Drowning, 1996, oil pastel 76 x 56.5 cm. Courtesy of the artist. Collection: Grafton Regional Gallery, NSW. Acquired with funds from the Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award, 1996.