Lightspace Gallery Exhibitions

Christina Klein is a painter and sculptor from Fairview, Kansas. Researching and documenting the changes in rural communities is the focus of Christina’s current body of work, which begins with the meditative process of playing with recycled materials. Canvases are sewn together using scraps of fabric, mixing textures to create shadows and seams that stretch across the surface. She also uses recycled cardboard, fabric from couches and other sources to build soft sculptures that resemble domestic structures from homes. Christina received her MFA from Florida State University and recently completed her Fulbright Fellowship at the Academy of Fine Arts Nuremberg. She is currently a Lecturer at the University of California Berkeley.

“There is something alluring about an abandoned house in the countryside, the weathered structure still proudly standing as a testament of a life gone. As I near the home and walk among the rubble, I am intrigued by the artifacts left behind. Clothes, shoes and other relics are proof that a life once existed among the decay. There is beauty in the way these houses fall apart. Sunlight shines through the rafters, peers through cracks in the windows, casting light on the floor much like the reflections through cathedral windows. In the rural Midwest this is a common occurrence as the population shifts to larger cities. I find more and more significance in these forgotten structures, especially as I myself have left home in search of jobs elsewhere. My work is the combination of my own imagination, observation and interviews with local residents.

Every part of my art making process builds upon the overarching narrative of loss and change. The imagery is a blend of real structures, ideas I developed through sketches and a collage of models I have built. The paintings and the models have come together, forging their own narrative with each other, where one idea fuels the next. I build my sculptures to look like my paintings, which in turn become still-lives for new painting series”.