Simon & Guillaume Klein: Imagined Bodies, Imagined Spaces

JdP Music Building, St Hilda’s College Oxford, presents this vibrant exhibition, bringing together the works of two artists, father and son, for the first time. Imagined Bodies, Imagined Spaces is a mixture of two mediums - sculpture and painting - and two very different styles with one common theme: the real and imaginary relationships between figures, objects, surrounding spaces and inevitably, the artists.

Simon exhibits colourful, figurative works, his painted Imagined Bodies stem from drawings and memory. They are worked and reworked until they reach their colourful dynamic. Guillaume’s Imagined Spaces are three-dimensional abstract shapes, created by the manipulation of hot metal. Their notably geometric and structural forms explore the empty spaces within and around them, made evident by the insertion of colourful resins.

Visually, these works are of a different nature, but shown together here for the first time they create an ambiguity of language and meaning, of Father and Son, old and new, a meeting point across generations that makes for a dialogue across divergent yet similar journeys.

Simon’s comments:

“By playing with the sensuality of the human figure in imagined spaces and image I explore touch and the visible, through surface and colour relationships, to question my sense of the beautiful”.

Guillaume’s comments:

“It examines the boundaries between space, colour, light and how the viewer’s visual perception analyses these components within a sculptural context […] it is the combination of metal and other materials which ignites my fascination for the work”.

Simon Klein lives and paints in Richmond, Greater London. He graduated from the Slade School of Art with a B.A. hons in 1982, and in 1997, gained a M.A. in Contemporary Fine Art Practice at Kingston University. Throughout his career Simon has been a prolific artist and has exhibited regularly. Last year his self-portrait was bought for the Ruth Borchard’s Permanent Collection. His work was recently exhibited at One Paved Court, Richmond Upon Thames and was shortlisted for the Chaiya Art Awards 2018, Oxo Tower London and the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours 2018, Mall Galleries London.

Guillaume Klein graduated from Hereford College of Arts with a B.A. in Artist Blacksmithing in 2015, and has since had his work exhibited at One Paved Court, Richmond Upon Thames, the New Designers Business Design Center, Islington, 100% Design, Kensington Olympia and Tangled in The Brambles Centre for Recent Drawing, Islington. He is currently undertaking a Master’s Degree in Applied Arts and Design (Metal Art), in Gothenburg, Sweden.

These works will be on display during Motion & Meaning at the JdP.

FOR INTERVIEW REQUESTS WITH Guillaume or Simon Klein
OR FOR IMAGES OF THEIR WORK PLEASE CONTACT:

Michelle Klein

t: 07530 303849

email: michelleklein@hotmail.co.uk