Larry and Debby Kline artists and provocateurs – installation, performances, and other works

Posts Tagged ‘collaborative art’
ENVZN24 – The New Age of Enlightenment meets Fashion Week San Diego!!!
ENVZN24 - The New Age of Enlightenment meets Fashion Week San Diego!!!

ENVZN24 paired our latest work, “The New Age of Enlightenment,” with San Diego Fashion Week! This piece is one of the largest 3D Printed artworks that we have seen and it invited lots of public interaction, including hundreds of new messages placed inside the Buddha column by visitors. We will post these ‘hopes and dreams for the future’ on social media daily.

San Diego Union Tribune, “ENVZN Urban Art Takeover features multi-sensory art,” Aug. 30, 2023.
San Diego Union Tribune, “ENVZN Urban Art Takeover features multi-sensory art,” Aug. 30, 2023.

Susanna Peredo Swap talks about the ENVZN 23 Urban Art Takeover, transforming two city blocks into a showcase for film, theater, dance, visual arts and music, from both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border:

“Debby and Larry Kline‘s piece is installed in a screen printing shop, transforming the space. It talks about over-consumption and recycling and the cycle of living trash. It’ll be like a temple.”

The Kline’s work gets crushed by a steamroller at ENVZN23 Urban Arts Takeover
The Kline's work gets crushed by a steamroller at ENVZN23 Urban Arts Takeover

Much thanks to all the folks at Mesa College art gallery for printing our woodblock, United States Hostage, at ENVZN23 Urban Art Takeover. Their crew “crushed it” on the streets of Logan Heights for about 12 hours. We sooooooo wanted to drive the steamroller!!!

The Malashock Dance troupe performing with the Alchemist at ENVZN23 Urban Arts Takeover.
The Malashock Dance troupe performing with the Alchemist at ENVZN23 Urban Arts Takeover.

We were thrilled to be part of this visual and performing arts festival that transformed warehouses, industrial spaces, and other urban areas of the Commercial Street corridor in Logan Heights. Two full city blocks were activated with multi-sensory art interventions by creatives from both sides of the U.S./Mexico border. Here is the Malashock Dance troupe tearing it up at ENVZN23 Urban Arts Takeover. The Alchemist is pleased.

SDVisualArts.net, “ENVZN: A Very Special Event,” By Lonnie Burstein Hewitt, August 18, 2023
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.
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.
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.
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
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.

The Alchemist in His Elements
The Alchemist in His Elements

The Alchemist is the original “maker”, an icon for a world that demands cheap, readily available material goods, without concern for the byproducts of manufacturing. But our relationship with industry is a complicated one. At its core, the Alchemist also represents our need to design, build and change our environment through understanding the principles that guide our world.

Project Extinction: J.J. Audubon’s Birds of America
Project Extinction: J.J. Audubon's Birds of America

Project Extinction is a series of drawings updating John Audubon‘s Birds of America. We are documenting the species that have since gone extinct since it’s publication, a continuation of a project that we started when we were artists in residence at the San Diego Museum of Natural History.

Joyce Cutler-Shaw Artists in Residence at UCSD School of Medicine
Joyce Cutler-Shaw Artists in Residence at UCSD School of Medicine

As the Joyce Cutler-Shaw Artists in Residence at UCSD School of Medicine, we are honored to have the opportunity to create artworks for display. We recently created/and or installed two large sculptures and one large drawing in the Biomedical Sciences building, each about 8 feet in height or length.

Three Phases of the Moon: A Cautionary Tale
Three Phases of the Moon: A Cautionary Tale

In the final panel, The Dark Side of the Moon, the Earth has become a defunct rock in the sky and rabbits, the victims of testing, have escaped and repopulated the moon, doomed to repeat the same mistakes as their human counterparts.

We’re Launching our Patreon Account! – www.patreon.com/jugglingklines
We're Launching our Patreon Account! - www.patreon.com/jugglingklines

We created a Patreon account so that people who love what we create can help support our work.

Zacky the Cat Fights Fascism in 2020 election
Zacky the Cat Fights Fascism in 2020 election

We have created a short video to encourage voting in this crucial US Presidential election. To save our Democracy, we must all do our best to counteract voter suppression and Fascism. If our cat can do it, so can you!

VoyageLA, “Art & Life with Larry and Debby Kline,” Jan. 21, 2019.
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.
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.

Call and Response and Response
Call and Response and Response

Each work consists of the CALL statement, and 2 RESPONSE drawings. The “CALL” occurs when one of The Klines asks the other partner to draw “something”. Once that drawing is finished, the person who issued the CALL creates a second drawing (in RESPONSE to the first drawing). We alternate who initiates the CALL. The result of this project reinforces the manner in which we feed off of each other’s ideas. It also emphasizes the continued spirit of play and the duality that guides many of our projects.

My Dinner with the Klines
My Dinner with the Klines

For years, The Klines have engaged in an unusual ritual by making art when dining out. It is one facet of their art that spawned their collaborative ventures. These works capture creativity at its most playful state, resulting in surprisingly complex and impromptu sculptures borne of only the materials at hand.