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

Weeks 1-6: Self-Confinement Residency with Building Bridges Los Angeles, September 2020.
Weeks 1-6: Self-Confinement Residency with Building Bridges Los Angeles, September 2020.

Weeks 1-6 of my self-confinement residency which will culminate in a performance and exhibition at Building Bridges Art Exchange Los Angeles. I am building Patrolling the Perimeters, featuring sugar tanks riding robotic vacuums which clean up their own messes as they collide.

Heritagefuture.org Podcast: Veronica Murphy / Larry and Debby Kline, August 2020.
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.

Larry Kline discusses his work with Debby Kline in a virtual lecture at Building Bridges Art Exchange, Los Angeles, August 2020.
Larry Kline discusses his work with Debby Kline in a virtual lecture at Building Bridges Art Exchange, Los Angeles, August 2020.

Larry Kline discusses his work with Debby Kline in a virtual chat at Building Bridges Art Exchange, Los Angeles. This conversation is part of the “Self-Confinement Residency,” developed by arts organizations in Spain, Columbia, Costa Rica and the United States to address the challenges facing artists who continue to create in the face of covid-19.

Art and Cake LA, “Disclosure: Art Redemption through Confession,” By Genie Davis, Jan. 31, 2019.
 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.
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.

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.

La Jolla Light,”20 artists reveal their beliefs in potent exhibit at Balboa Park,” By Lonnie Burstein Hewitt, October 15, 2018.
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.
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.