Meditations of a Solitary Walker

Meditations of a Solitary Walker new work by Randy Klein

GXgallery 26 March - 14 April 2011 www/randyklein.co.uk

M e d i t a t i o n s o f a S o l i t a r y Wa l k e r Ne w Wo r k b y

Randy Klein

GX galler y 26 March - 14 April 2011 w w w. r a n d y k l e i n . c o . u k

Meditations of a Solitary Walker Drivers on this road have long realised that the speed camera doesn’t actually work. Very few heed the warning painted in the tarmac to go ‘SLOW’. It is a shame, and not just because it makes for reckless driving, Even the very familiar offers unexpected rewards if we really look. At speed, the balance between city and nature along this road is a blur.

The works presented in this exhibition are about walking. Slowing down and meandering, taking the tim to really look.

My art always has a narrative within it. The story I have told in this new collection of works is a simple one. It is the story of taking a walk. The paintings follow the progression of a change in perspective, advancing up a garden path or down a city street. They are like signposts, recreating a state of mind, the state of mind of a walker.

Randy Klein

I have met with but one or two persons in the course of my life who understood the art of Walking, that is, of taking walks--who had a genius, so to speak, for Sauntering For this is the secret of successful sauntering. He who sits still in a house all the time may be the greatest vagrant of all; but the saunterer, in the good sense, is no more vagrant than the meandering river, which is all the while sedulously seeking the shortest course to the sea.

Henry David Thoreau

Going Slow on Brenchley Gardens, 2010. Enamel on aluminium, 57cm X 125cm.

www.randyklein.co.uk

Once Upon a Time People Lived in Caves, Study, 2010. Oil on wood, 70cm X 140cm.

Once Upon a Time People Lived in Caves - Matera, 2010. Enamel on aluminium, 70cm X 140cm.

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The Dawn in Two Chapters (1), 2011. Enamel on aluminium, , 50cm X 110cm.

The Dawn in Two Chapters (2), 2011. Enamel on aluminium, , 50cm X 110cm.

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City in a Quarry - Matera, 2010. Enamel on aluminium, 48cm X 125cm

Nature Devours Even Gotham (Central Park), 2010. Enamel on aluminium, 50cm X 125cm

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What birds plunge through is not the intimate space To know a tree in its true element throw inner space around it, from that pure abundance in you.

Surround it with restraint It has no limits Rainer Maria Rilke

Meditations of a Solitary Walker, 2010. Enamel on aluminium, 15 pieces, each 34.cm X 24.5cm

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When Lilacs Last in the Doorway Bloomed, 2010. Enamel on aluminium, 52cm X 125cm

You are looking at a tree. It cannot be mistaken for anything else. You are sure that you know what a tree looks like. You are in no doubt, whatever the context, that this is a tree. The possible question is whether this is an actual tree or a symbol representing a tree. And, if a symbol, is it representing an actual tree or the image of a tree. This is a question on which you could linger.

It is a spiralling loop in which your mind could wander, but without fear because you are anchored by your certainty that you know about trees. The central notion is one with which you are familiar. Trees.

Give me odorous at sunrise a garden of beautiful flowers, where I can walk undisturb’d; Walt Whitman

Jenny Klein www.randyklein.co.uk

Waiting for Kasia from the Tate, 2010. Enamel on aluminium, 45cm X 60cm

City Trees The trees along this city street, Save for the traffic and the trains, Would make a sound as thin and sweet As trees in country lanes.

And people standing in their shade Out of a shower, undoubtedly Would hear such music as is made Upon a country tree.

Oh, little leaves that are so dumb Against the shrieking city air, I watch you when the wind has come,— I know what sound is there.

Edna St. Vincent Millay

Diary of a Street, 2010. Enamel on aluminium, 10 pieces, each 41cm X 31cm

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Olmsted’s Dream (Central Park 2), 2010. Enamel on aluminium, 44cm X 125cm

A child said, What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands; How could I answer the child?. . . .I do not know what it is any more than he.

I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green stuff woven.

Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord, A scented gift and remembrancer designedly dropped, Bearing the owner’s name someway in the corners, that we may see and remark, and say Whose?

Or I guess the grass is itself a child. . . .the produced babe of the vegetation.

And now it seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves.

Walt Whitman

Clouds Enclose the City , 2010. Enamel on aluminium, 65cm X 125cm

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Exodus in the Frost on Boxing Day (North Downs Way), 2010. Enamel on aluminium, 50cm X 125cm

Every man casts a shadow; not his body only, but his imperfectly mingled spirit. This is his grief. Let him turn which way he will, it falls opposite to the sun; short at noon, long at eve.

Did you never see it?

Wordsworth

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Small River, 2010. Enamel on aluminium, 44cm X 65cm.

Walk in Snow, 2011. Enamel on aluminium, 46cm X 70cm

Tracks in the Snow, 2010. Enamel on aluminium, 53cm X 125cm

Dust of Snow The way a crow Shook down on me The dust of snow From a hemlock tree Has given my heart A change of mood And saved some part Of a day I had rued.

www.randyklein.co.uk

Robert Frost

Walk in the Lakes, 2010. Enamel on aluminium, 42cm X 55cm

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Randy Klein Curriculum Vitae Solo Exhibitions GX Gallery, Metacollage, 2010 Darlington Arts Centre, Coney Island Angels, 2010 Neo Gallery, Cumbria, 2009 University West of England, Bristol, 2009 GX Gallery, New Work, London, 2008 Ars e Arte Galleria, Galatina, Inner Cities, 2008 Istituzione Classense, La Via Dantesca, 2008 GX Gallery, Sculpture, 2007 GX Gallery, Seasons of the Sublime, 2007 GX Gallery, Unexpected Landscape, 2006 Accademia Italiana, Itineris Vitae, 2000 Bruton Street Gallery, Alphabet Series, 1999 Midland Arts Centre, Birmingham, Fables from Everyday Life, 1997 European Academy, London, Fables from Everyday Life, 1997 Carasi Arte Contemporanea, Fables from Everyday Life, 1996 Hobart and William Smith Colleges, New York, Print Survey, 1995 Lamont Gallery, 1993, 4 Midland Arts Centre, Birmingham 1994 Beaux Arts Gallery, 1992 Carasi Arte Contemporanea, People with their Things, 1991 Accadamia Italiana, lmages out of Dante, 1991 Chapman Gallery, 1990 Carasi Arte Contemporanea, 1989 Wlndsor Arts Centre, Mortal Comedy, 1987 Barbican Arts Centre, Austin/Desmond, 1986 Galerie Jean-Pierre Lavigne, Paris, 1986 Bath Contemporary Art Fair, 1985 BACA. New York, Florida, 1982 112 Greene St.. New York, Tin Temples, 1980 Manhattan Lab Museum, 1980

Selected Group Exhibitions Royal Academy – 2009, 2008 London Print Studio – 2008 McHardy Sculpture Gallery, 2005 Spectrum Fine Art, 2005 Zimmer Stewart Gallery, 2003 Owens Art Gallery, New Brunswick, Canada, 2001 Collins Gallery, Glasgow and touring, 1998-2001 University of West of England and touring, Books by Artists, 1998-2001 Wolesley Fine Arts 1997 Hardware Gallery. 1988 -93 Royal Academy - 2001, 2000, 1998 Lamont Gallery 1992 Agnews, 1992 lnternational Contemporary Art Fair, 1991-1995 Prema Arts Centre. Southwest Arts. The Face - 1991 Diorama Gallery. 1984, 89, 90, 91. 92 Carasi Arte Contemporanea - 1991/92 Smith’s Gallery, Americans Abroad - 1989 L.A. Contemporary Art Fair - 1988 Pomeroy Purdy Gallery -1988 Hardware Gallery - 1988 Salon des Mont Moulins. Paris - 1986 Whitechapel Art Gallery -1983 P.S.122 New York - 1981 N.Y.U. Art Gallery - 1981 Alain Bilhaud Gallery, New York -1981 Public lmage Gallery, New York - 1981 Gimpel, New York - 1981 Collections Tate Gallery British Museum Museum of Modern Art. New York Brooklyn Museum New York Public Library Print Collection Scottish Arts Council Getty Museum IBM, UK

Victoria and Albert Museum Accademia ltaliana New York Public Library Brimmington Park, London Paterson Park, London Manchester Metropolitan University Lady Hambleden Recent Public Projects Nunhead Station, 2010 – Entrance sculpture A New Leaf, 2010 – Sculpture commissioned for a new secondary school in Sutton, Surrey Paterson Park, 2006 – Stainless steel parasol Friary Estate, 2006 – Vitreous enamelled photographs and sculptural balustrades Brimington Park entrance sculpture, 2005 A Tree for New Cross ,2004 - Two large tree sculptures, along A2 approach.

As Far as the Eye Can See 2003 - Sculpture for Gallions Mount School, Arts Council Family Ties 2003 With immigrant families.

Haymerle School 2003 - with Louise Hooper, landscape architect.

Home Truths, 2002 - Award winning film and sculpture with clients of Thames Reach, charity for homeless. (broadcast LWT Nov 2002) sculpture for KPMG, and book about project.

Taking Shape - 2001 - Environmental project, Arts Council of England Lottery Fund Beethoven Centre 2001 New gates for community centre in Westminster.

Mozart Estate - 2001 - 2001 Entrance sculptures and feature walls.

Education University of Chicago - 1969-73 Art Students League of New York -1972-75 Pratt Graphic Center - 1978-81 Tower Hamlets College Foundry, Welding 1985-88

GXgallery

43 Denmark Hill

London SE5 8RS 020 7 703 8396

info@gxgallery.com

www.gxgallery.com www.randyklein.co.uk