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

Posts Tagged ‘us mexico relations’
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 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.

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.

San Diego Jewish World, “Art to inspire, raise questions, and perhaps anger,” by Donald H. Harrison, October 23, 2018.
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.

Smithsonian Magazine, “The Dispossessed,” by Anna Diamond, July 2018.
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.

NO LONGER HIDDEN! DesEscondido BEGINS! & OH MY GODS! BEYOND THE AGE OF REASON CONTINUES!
NO LONGER HIDDEN!  DesEscondido  BEGINS!  &  OH MY GODS!  BEYOND THE AGE OF REASON  CONTINUES!

Simultaneous exhibitions at San Diego Art Institute and California Center for the Arts Museum!

We will be showing our “Post-Apocalyptic Coffeehouse” as well as thirty-nine drawings from our latest series, “Tiny Revolutions,” which have never been seen in San Diego at California Center for the Arts Museum. These tiny “acts of defiance” are hand-drawn graphite images ranging in size from ½” x ½” to 2 ½” x 2 ½.”

Beyond the Age of Reason continues at San Diego Art Institute featuring works by 20 artists including Eleanor Antin, Wayne Martin Belger, Michelangelo Buonarroti, de la Torre Brothers, Ruben Ochoa and Erika Rothenberg. Curated by Debby and Larry Kline.

Tiny Revolutions
Tiny Revolutions

We have decided to create an “act of defiance” each day in the form of Tiny Revolutions, very small hand-drawn graphite images ranging in size from ½” x ½” to 2 ½” x 2 ½.” Their size is dictated by the possibility that a day may come when Americans cannot freely voice dissent.

Maquette for Memorial for a Perilous Journey: Running to Racism
Maquette for Memorial for a Perilous Journey: Running to Racism

The figures in this piece are appropriated from California highway signage intended to indicate the crossing of undocumented immigrants, and are caricatures of a Mexican family. The final version of this piece is intended to be floated down the Tijuana River to the Pacific Ocean to be sailed Northward and placed on land as a monument to those who have perished in the crossing.

Artbusiness.com, “MISSION CULTURAL CENTER FOR LATINO ARTS, June 29, 2011.
 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.