Larry and Debby Kline artists and provocateurs – installation, performances, and other works
Reviews
San Diego City Beat, “San Diego art that made an impact in 2013,” by Kinsee Morlan, Dec. 31, 2013
There’s a lot to criticize at art fairs, which often include more commercial, sellable art. While that type of work was surely present at Art San Diego, there was plenty of more challenging work. Among the outstanding pieces was nearly everything by artists Larry and Debby Kline, Raul Guerrero’s portraits featuring faces from San Diego art history and James Watts’ beautiful Kokeshi dolls.
San Diego City Beat, “Eight Cool Things to Experience at Art San Diego,” by Kinsee Morlan, Nov. 6, 2013
Pick up the Art San Diego schedule this year and you’ll see the names Debby and Larry Kline so many times, you might think there’s been some sort of mistake. The married couple, who collaborate on their multimedia conceptual- and performance-art projects, will have work featured in two exhibitor booths—Beyond the Border Gallery and the San Diego Art Prize space—they’ll be doing multiple performances, giving a talk and leading tours through the fair as roving docents. The ubiquity of the Klines is a good thing, giving visitors a chance to get a grasp on the depth, diversity and myriad political provocations of their work.
La Jolla Light, “Contemporary Art Fair Brings “Creative Collisions” to Balboa Park,” by Lonnie Burstein Hewitt, Oct. 31, 2013
But many of the notables in ArtSD13 are San Diegans, like artist-provocateurs Debby and Larry Kline. Besides bringing a number of their creative works to the fair, they will offer interactive performances, including a tour of the exhibits and a demo of “3Doodler,” a 3-D pen that writes in hard plastic. “It’s great to have the Klines onboard,” said Berchtold. “They combine an intellectual approach to art with such a sense of fun. The 3Doodler company donated a couple of pens for them to play with, and they’ll give fairgoers a chance to play, too.”
“How a Pair of Artists Plan to Change the World Using Plastic Forks,” by Yamalieu Khuu for Creative Little Monsters, Oct. 28, 2013
The Klines are light-hearted enough to discuss every day ponderings, like the status of their local weather but they eat, breathe, and live for the juicy and uncomfortable realities of our world. The exhibit showcased the powerful transformation of a handful of trash into a bold artistic statement with careful crafting and snapping a photograph at just the right angle.
The Klines on Art Pulse TV, Oct. 26, 2013
Join us for dinner at Rudford’s restaurant as we create an original artwork with the cameras rolling. Click on the link below to view: http://artpulse.tv/videos/larry-debby-kline/
La Jolla Light, “Mesa College Gallery show takes a poke at convention,” by Lonnie Burstein Hewitt, Sept. 18, 2013.
Their style is surreal, and their sense of humor is both intelligent and open hearted, a rare combination in the art world and beyond. For a good time, let yourself get “POKED” at Mesa’s Gallery: You may well go out more enlightened than you came in.
Lecture for POKE: A Series of Provocations @ San Diego Mesa College Art Gallery, September 5, 2013
Our opening night lecture for “POKE: A Series of Provocations” at San Diego Mesa College Art Gallery has just been posted. Much thanks to Alessandra Moctezuma and Pat Vine for planning this event and making it all run so smoothly, to Michael Gast for producing the video and Will Scott for lending his amazing music to the project. Much appreciation also to the many Museum Studies students who assisted with the installation and to all who attended and gave us such a warm and rewarding reception.
San Diego City Beat, “Canvassed / Art & Culture,” September 4, 2013
The Klines, custom cars, art at Liberty Station and a classic film at SDMA
Our weekly Red List roundup
“Arabian Chess,” a commentary on the work of Debby and Larry Kline by David Antin, August 2013
So the Klines can be regarded as political artists, not in the dismal sense of advocating or lamenting one political policy or another, but of outrageously modeling discrepancies in our understandings of political situations. So they are hilarious political artists in the manner of Aristo-phanes rather than Brecht. But there is another sense in which they are not political artists, or not merely political artists.
http://artfullifebycathy.blogspot.com/, ‘Poke: A Series of Provocations’ by Cathy Breslaw, August 29, 2013
When we walk into an exhibition space we don’t expect to see a store with items for sale. Debby and Larry Kline want to mess with us by taking things out of context. They present us with beautifully crafted objects – shiny, cute, funny, odd, kinetic, and nostalgic. Just when they reel us in with lightness and humor, we are hit with the question “Wait a minute, what is all this and what does it mean?”
DISD NEWS, “The Klines Awarded Prestigious San Diego Art Prize,” by Mae Case, May 14, 2013
DISD NEWS -5.14.2013, The Klines Awarded Prestigious San Diego Art Prize Sitting down to interview Design Institute of San Diego instructors and husband/wife artistic duo Larry and Debby Kline is like taking a sneak peek into a brainstorming session of their next art project. It’s a fascinating process, watching them finish each other’s sentences [...]
San Diego Jewish World, “San Diego’s ‘Artists of the Year’ and Tikkun Olam,” by Donald H. Harrison, May 12, 2013.
If Rabbi Hillel could summarize all of Torah while standing on one foot with the admonition “That which is hateful to you do not do to others. The rest is commentary” then the Klines were nearly equally concise with their summary of the Ten Commandments. The Klines mused that “Be Nice” could convey the same message as the Ten Commandments yet possibly pass constitutional muster.
San Diego Union Tribune, “SD Art Prize Honors Hubbell, Klines,” April 9, 2013.
Artists James Hubbell and Debby and Larry Kline are the 2013 winners of the San Diego Art Prize. Presented by the San Diego Visual Arts Network, the prize “spotlights established San Diego artists and emerging artists whose outstanding achievements in the field of visual arts merit recognition.”
La Jolla Light, “San Diego Mayor Bob Filner helps celebrate 2012 Art Prize winners at La Jolla’s Athenaeum Music and Arts Library,” April 9, 2013
The San Diego Art Prize, funded by San Diego Visual Arts Network, is an annual award given to two established artists, who in turn, choose an emerging artist for the award. Toward the end of the reception, Patricia Frischer stepped up to congratulate the prizewinners and announce the new recipients for 2013: established artists James Hubbell and Debby and Larry Kline, who will choose their own emerging artists later this year.
La Jolla Light Review – Oct. 11, 2012
By Lonnie Burstein Hewitt When you were a school-kid, did your parents ever tell you: Don’t play with your food? Debby and Larry Kline started doing just that in art school, back in the 1980s, and it led them into a very successful career. An exhibit of some of the pieces they’ve created extemporaneously [...]
Twisted South Radio Interview, August 23, 2012
Click on the link below to listen to The Klines’ interview on Twisted South Radio, 8/23/2012 TwistedSouthRadioInterview_TheKlines
San Diego Home and Garden Lifestyles Review – August 2012
Always looking to expand their arsenal of tools and techniques, the Klines use every opportunity to experiment with art — down to their recent bathroom remodel. But according to Debby, unlike anything they’ve done before, the project wasn’t too difficult. “Once you’ve built a dome in Jerusalem, you can build just about anything.”
www.resonantcity.net REVIEW July 12, 2011
Debby and Larry Kline at Mission Cultural Center In You We Trust, the current exhibition at Mission Cultural Center Gallery, showcases the work of Debby and Larry Kline. The Kline’s are based in Escondido, CA and much of their work examines the border relationship between Mexico and United States. They work in a variety [...]
Artbusiness.com, “MISSION CULTURAL CENTER FOR LATINO ARTS, June 29, 2011.
In the main gallery, Debby and Larry Kline intrepidly essay on the relationship between Mexico and the United States, but they don’t stop there. US/Middle East policy, military might makes right, and the health care system as big business are all candidates for brutal scrutiny in this cavalcade of social and political commentary.
BOOK: Larry and Debby Kline Featured in THE ARTIST’S GUIDE by Jackie Battenfield (Da Capo Press, 2009)
The Klines featured in “The Artist’s Guide” by Jackie Battenfield, Da Capo Press, 2009
“COFAC Premiers “The Candy Store: Dispensing Truth” – Pasadena / San Gabriel Valley News Journal, Oct. 29 – Nov. 4, 2009
I asked the Klines why they chose to exhibit in the Center Tijuana. They said, “The venue at La Casa del Tunel, is an apropos location considering the hordes of US citizens who cross the border to save money on less expensive prescription medications. The added facet of a drug-smuggling tunnel transformed into a cultural venue transformed into a drug store makes the project even more significant, meaningful, timely and edgy.”
Press Release: The Game at Hand Is at Hand and Will Be Hands On (Apr. 28, 2009)
Debby and Larry Kline are pleased to announce coverage of The Game at Hand in Thursday’s edition of The North County Times (see below.) The artists will be lecturing on the project on May 16, 2009 at California Center for the Arts Museum, Escondido. Following the artists talk at 1PM visitors will be encouraged to [...]
“Artists Make a Move with Global Chess Game” – North County Times, April 23, 2009
As the country geared up to watch U.S. forces invade Afghanistan in 2001, artists Debby and Larry Kline grappled with how to express what they felt [...] the result was “The Game at Hand,” a mixed-media artwork at the center of their joint exhibition at the California Center for the Arts.
Reality Check Interview, The Artist’s Guide: How to Make a Living Doing What You Love, by Jackie Battenfield, May 13, 2008.
This is an interview with Debby and Larry Kline on May 13, 2008. They belong to Public Address, which is a collective and arts advocacy group based in San Diego, California. They discuss how the collective functions as a support group and its role in promoting artists rights with public art commissioning agencies. J: Larry [...]