Larry and Debby Kline artists and provocateurs – installation, performances, and other works
Reviews
SDVisualArts.net, “ENVZN: A Very Special Event,” By Lonnie Burstein Hewitt, August 18, 2023
The Klines’ Alchemist has appeared in different iterations in various locations. This newest version—now legless but taller than ever—will be surrounded by drawings that illustrate the four elements of the alchemical process: Earth, Wind, Fire and Water. You’ll find him in a space that welcomes meditation, with a soulful soundscape by Tijuana-based multimedia music artist MALU and an offering bowl for you to share your hopes and dreams.
UC San Diego TODAY, “The Human Condition Affects Us All,” by Joyce Pritchett, July 12, 2023.
“Students have the unique opportunity to work with the Klines to practice life drawing of models and cadavers,” said Lee. “The goal of the class is to help students form an understanding of the human body that is wholly different from, yet may intersect and interact with, the clinical perspective.”
DiversionsLA, Excerpt from “Art Blossoms at Loft at Liz’s, Durden and Ray and More,” May 10, 2023.
Edgy and surreal, witty, and, well, expansive, the show includes an eight foot ink drawing (just one panel in a larger piece) by the Klines, “The Dark Side of the Moon (Phase 3)
San Diege Jewish World, “B’Shalom: Body Image, Military History, Baseball Classic, Jewish Political News,” By Donald H. Harrison, March 16, 2023.
Columns on either side, made of blue masking tape, present Schomaker as a Samson-like figure pulling down the pillars of body-image orthodoxy. “This is an image of her pushing the boundaries of what is considered acceptable,” Larry said. “We tried to make an image of her that shows her inner strength instead of her foibles and weaknesses,” Debby added.
Trifecta: Artist, Scientist, Patron exhibition tour video
“The Klines worked with Dr. Thiomas Albright, Chair of Vision Research at the Salk Institute, whose research is studying perceptions and our brain’s ability to fill in what it thinks it has seen. His research is finding that things like cultural expectations, personal bias and even religious beliefs have more impact on our perception than what we see with our own eyes.” This work also incorporates poetry by David Antin and Jerome Rothenberg, and readings by Eleanor Antin and Jerome Rothenberg.
Art and Cake LA, “The Bird Is The Word,” by Kristine Schomaker, Jan. 18, 2022.
Audubon documented as many American birds that he could find in his lifetime. He was an avid hunter but appreciated the diversity, abundance and beauty of birds. He often would kill the birds, position them in such a manner that they looked alive and then document them in drawings and paintings. We picked up his pen and followed with images of birds that are now extinct.
SDVisualArts.net, “Seeking Truth & Other Science-Inspired Installations at La Jolla Historical Society,” By Lonnie Burstein Hewitt, October 14, 2021
They’d created a kind of forced perspective—those tilted walls—and added competing sounds from multiple directions that were meant to be confusing, even a little disturbing—a demonstration of how distractions affect perception. The TRUTH carved into the granite slab was stippled to look blurry: the word appeared gradually in 15-minute cycles, then water jets washed it away. Dim lighting made things even more confusing, and I couldn’t hear myself in the cacophony of voices, recorded at a 2017 tribute to the late poet David Antin.
Heritagefuture.org Podcast: Veronica Murphy / Larry and Debby Kline, August 2020.
We are honored to be interviewed by Heritagefuture.org for our work illustrating stories for Write Out Loud’s Kamishibai presentations. The latest project was told from the viewpoint of a Japanese-American child, who endured loss and displacement as his family was forced into Japanese internment camps during WWII.
Art and Cake LA, “Disclosure: Art Redemption through Confession,” By Genie Davis, Jan. 31, 2019.
Debby and Larry Kline play prophet by mapping impending tragedy for the planet. The large scale ink on paper work is lush and dramatic, referencing Biblical plagues as they foretell natural and man-made disasters. The work, “Prayer Rug: Be Not Afraid” is a massive 49 by 94 inches.
VoyageLA, “Art & Life with Larry and Debby Kline,” Jan. 21, 2019.
We create everything from large installations to micro-drawings. The materials that we use are always dictated by the idea, so our media ranges from the traditional like graphite, clay and paint to the unusual, such as fluorescent light bulbs, mud from the Dead Sea, ketchup and salt. Much of our work is a reflection on politics and social justice.
Artdaily.org, “Exhibition offers a take on the sacred and secular acts of confessing sins,” Jan. 20, 2019.
Curated by Dani Dodge and Alanna Marcelletti, “Disclosure: Confessions for Modern Times” features artists Kim Abeles, Jorin Bossen, Kimberly Brooks, Joe Davidson, Dani Dodge, Donald Fodness, Kathryn Hart, Debby and Larry Kline, Conchi Sanford, Ed Tahaney and Steven Wolkoff.
San Diego Jewish World, “Art to inspire, raise questions, and perhaps anger,” by Donald H. Harrison, October 23, 2018.
SAN DIEGO – The contemporary art exhibit, “Beyond the Age of Reason,” curated by Larry and Debby Kline, is nearing the end of its run at the San Diego Art Institute in Balboa Park. If you want to be intrigued, or even possibly enraged, by various artists’ visions of religion and spirituality, you’ll need to get to the museum space before the exhibit closes on October 31st.
La Jolla Light,”20 artists reveal their beliefs in potent exhibit at Balboa Park,” By Lonnie Burstein Hewitt, October 15, 2018.
The myth-master is Eleanor Antin, one of the founding members of UC San Diego’s Visual Arts Department, and an internationally-admired artist, or as the Klines put it: “an artist of the world.” Shown here is one of the pieces from her “Roman Allegories,” a series of large-scale photos staged in Del Mar and La Jolla that re-envision the last days of an ancient civilization remarkably similar to ours.
Art and Cake LA, “Dialectic of Being and Becoming at 18th Street Arts Center,” By Genie Davis, October 1, 2018.
Debby and Larry Kline’s lush black and white works, the phrase “3 EYES” running vertically between two images, one of which features the eyes of a potato, while drones circle a rather apocalyptic landscape; the other a man with a singularly long lensed telescope or perhaps a periscope, pointed down, with an eye at its lens. The frame above the work features eye-like shapes. We are encouraged to look within, and to truly “see” our way of life. Beautifully, realistically detailed, the humor and absurdist quality of the subjects create a rich dichotomy.
San Diego Union Tribune, “Beliz Iristay finds that in America, ‘the artist part of me has really flourished,’” by Martina Schimitschek, September 16, 2018
After the failed military coup of 2016 in Turkey, Iristay designed 55 rehals (the x-shaped bookrests for the Quran) and filled them with small minarets. Titled “Oku | Read,” the rehals are covered with military cards used by soldiers to keep track of their service days. The translucent cast-resin minarets are in jumbled disarray. The piece, part of the San Diego Art Institute’s exhibition “Beyond the Age of Reason,” warns of ignorance.
Art and Cake LA, “Beyond the Age of Reason at the San Diego Art Institute,” by Genie Davis, September 13, 2018.
“Myth is open to interpretation, and unfortunately, so are truths, but they are still the underpinnings of religious belief. The nuances of belief can either unite or divide individual, families and nations. The nuances can lead to peace or more often, war,” the Klines relate. “We believe -pun intended – that the artists reflect the larger populace that struggles with the concept of belief.”
Art and Cake LA, “Final Round Up: Studio System 2 at Torrance Art Museum,” By Lawrence Gipe, August 8, 2018.
Conceptual power-couple Debby and Larry Kline worked on five different projects during SS2 including the crowd-pleasing Poor, Poor Artist, which asked the public for stock tips (the Klines had invested their $500 stipend from the residency into the market).
Smithsonian Magazine, “The Dispossessed,” by Anna Diamond, July 2018.
Although this article was not specifically written about “Beyond the Age of Reason,” Smithsonian’s feature article on Wayne Martin Belger and his “Us and Them” project was published just days before our exhibition opened. Since the “Beyond the Age of Reason,” exhibition is the first time that “Us and Them” has been publicly exhibited, we felt it important to include the article here. To read the complete story, please visit SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE, “The Dispossessed,” by Anna Diamond, July 2018.
Art and Cake, “The Candy Store and Something Extra at Shoebox Projects,” By Genie Davis, June 24, 2018.
The collaborative couple have created an astonishing installation work that is both political and beautiful; it is experiential and a passionate protest. Viewers here are participants shopping in this candy store, searching for a cure not just for our own sicknesses, but that of society.
Art and Cake, “Studio Systems II at Torrance Art Museum: Half-Time,” by Larry Gipe, June 18, 2018.
Debby and Larry Kline take on the social and environmental issues of the day in a variety of projects including Tiny Revolutions (pictured here) – small pencil on paper works that pack a big punch. A chalkboard on site lists the myriad pieces that are underway.
San Diego Jewish World, “Science meets art at the Natural History Museum,” By Donald H. Harrison, March 26, 2018.
Artists Larry and Debby Kline have been involved in a pair of collaborations with scientists, including a current engagement as artists in residence at San Diego’s Natural History Museum in Balboa Park, where they are updating the work of 19th-century ornithologist John James Audubon’s “Birds of America” portfolio.
Diversions LA, “Infinite Content: Ceramic Stunners,” Nov. 29, 2017.
With media that shifts depending upon the project they undertake, the pair have used everything from salt to Israeli mud, ceramics, foam, and cement to shape their works. “It is the process of experimentation that leads to truly amazing things in the studio,” they attest. Dealing with subjects both political, social, and humane, their witty, pointed, and above all, graceful, work is a conversation with the viewer.
voiceofsandiego.org, “Innovative UCSD Program Aims to Draw Compassion Out of Future Doctors,” by Kinsee Morlan, October 16, 2017.
Some medical students find drawing bodies more intimate and overwhelming than dissecting them. It’s part of UCSD School of Medicine’s artist-in-residency program, which has inspired similar endeavors at med schools across the world. Debby and Larry Kline are the new artists-in-residence at the UC San Diego School of Medicine.
La Jolla Light, “In an ‘Extra-Ordinary Collusion’ Art/Science join forces for exhibit in Balboa Park,” by Lonnie Burstein Hewitt, June 15, 2017.
Navlakha uses algorithms to study similarities between biological and engineered networks, hoping to learn how to interrupt the progression of disease. The Klines use sensors to track which artworks in the exhibit hold visitors’ attention longest. Their installation includes video images of traffic patterns, networks of slime molds, herds of Pokemon Go players, and the artists, along with comfortable seating.