Ray Kleinlein: Recent Paintings

April 20 – June 8, 2024
Opening reception: Saturday, April 20th, 3 – 5pm
Artist talk: 3:30pm

Book launch and signing with the artist and author Betty A. Block: 4:15pm

Paul Thiebaud Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of Ray Kleinlein: Recent Paintings on Saturday, April 20, 2024, from 3-5pm, with an artist talk at 3:30pm and a book launch and signing at 4:15pm.  Marking Kleinlein’s second solo exhibition with the gallery, on view will be 12 oil paintings on canvas of different arrangements of books, dress shirts, and one edge-to-edge semi-abstract painting focused on the texture and patterning of fabric.  Focused on the seemingly mundane and ordinary, Ray Kleinlein elevates everyday objects to be more than they are through his sensitive handling of the paint surface.  The exhibition will be on view through June 8, 2024. 

Creating works that both embrace tradition while simultaneously transcending it, Ray Kleinlein’s long-time devotion to common objects for his subject matter stems from events that happened early in his life.  During his childhood, Kleinlein’s family home caught fire and burned down.  Having lost everything, Kleinlein developed a keen sense of the importance of the objects we normally take for granted that has never left him.  This awareness manifests in his work through his attention to rendering forms, textures, light, and color.

For his second solo exhibition at the gallery, Ray Kleinlein presents large- and small-scale compositions focused on arrangements books, striped dress shirts, and an all over painting of patterned fabric that dances the line between realism and abstraction.  While viewers may read symbolic or other meanings in his works, Kleinlein is less interested in the content of objects (though he admits there are associations to the broader culture with every object) than the compositional elements making up the painting and his treatment of the brushstrokes: “The formal language I employ is a synthesis of traditional and contemporary aesthetics, particularly those associated with geometric abstraction and minimalism… they are convincing representations of actual objects as well as abstract arrangements of light, shape, and color.”

Paul Thiebaud Gallery is also pleased to host a book launch and signing during the opening reception for Ray Kleinlein: Art and the Aesthetics of the Everyday, a newly released 120 page, hard cover book celebrating the paintings of Ray Kleinlein.  In attendance for the signing will be author Betty A. Block and the artist.  The gallery is pleased to offer the book at a special introductory price of $45.00 (regular price $59.99) for a limited number of copies available at the signing.  Pre-orders are highly recommended and can be made by email or phone call prior to the opening. 

Born in Columbus, OH, Ray Kleinlein earned his BA in Art from the Columbus College of Art and Design in 1993 and an MFA in Painting and Art History from Ohio University at Athens, OH, in 1998.  Since graduating, he has taught art at Hampton-Sydney College, Longwood University, Davidson College, Lynchburg College, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, and Concordia University, Chicago.  His works have been exhibited across the United States and can be found in the collections of the Canton Museum of Art, OH; Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga, TN; Southern Ohio Museum, Portsmouth; Zanesville Museum of Art, OH: Davidson College, Davidson, NC, and numerous private collections.