Marsha Klein

A San Francisco Bay Area visual artist, I create large format oil paintings and sculptural ceramics, working primarily in these two mediums sequentially for twenty years each.

Art has always contained me, as both a sanctuary and a vehicle. Revealing a flood of possibilities, it continues to provide me with the opportunity to develop an expressive visual language of my life’s experience. Steeped in metaphor, I interweave mythological and historical references into my personal imagery. Using a raw approach presents an unexpected juxtaposition of images and captures essential elements, while I record these waking dreams.

My passionate involvement with fine art began as a teenager, when I discovered the art museums of my native New York City. At first, I studied art practice and art history in New York, but did most of my undergraduate work at the University of California, Berkeley, at the peak of the Bay Area Figurative movement in the 1960’s. My own artmaking was generated within this figurative tradition. I studied drawing with RB Kitaj, visiting professor from London, and ceramics with Ron Nagle and Peter Voulkos.

Influences:
The apparent cultural fusion in my imagery reflects many years of looking at art nationally and abroad. I am pulled by the symbolic, psychological presence of surrealism, the passion and intensity of German Expressionism, the darkness and joy of Mexican art, and the spirit and rawness of primitive, especially African, art. In my work my main influences are modern and contemporary.

My ceramic work has been exhibited nationally in galleries in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Santa Fe, and in museums: the Oakland Museum, L.A. Craft & Folk Art Museum and Newport Harbor Art Museum.

SELECTED SOLO AND 2-3 PERSON EXHIBITIONS: Painting & Ceramic Sculpture:
2012 Gallery 212, Sonoma Community Center, Sonoma CA
2008 McCree Goudeau Gallery, Vallejo CA
1992 Jung Institute, San Francisco CA
1989 Elizabeth Fortner Gallery, Santa Barbara CA
1984 Matrix Gallery, Sacramento CA
1976 Transamerica Pyramid Bldg. San Francisco CA
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2011 Pacific Art League, Palo Alto CA
2010 Gallery 212, Sonoma Community Center, Sonoma CA
2008 McCree Goudeau Gallery, Vallejo CA
2002 Sunset Idea House, Palo Alto CA, Copia, Napa CA
California Design, curator: Kenneth Trapp, SmithsonianMuseum
2001 Denise Bibro Gallery, New York, NY
2000 Sustainability Show, San Francisco CA
1995 Long Beach Art Center, CA, curator: Henry Hopkins
Foundation Napoleon, Paris FRANCE
1994 Art & Action Project, Los Angeles CA
1989 Pinch Pottery, Northampton, Mass.
1983 San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art CA
MUSEUM GROUP SHO...