Simon Klein, Artist

The Desire to Be Desired

Poster with exhibition graphics over two figures painted in black, white and blue against dark blue background

6 – 24 April 2022

Curated by Michelle Klein

In this exhibition at One Paved Court in Richmond Simon Klein showed oil paintings and works on paper in a variety of media from pen and ink sketches to works in oil pastel. He paints human figures in loosely constructed landscapes or interiors, sometimes both.

Often lovers or in groups as though they were going someplace or coming from somewhere, they look towards each other or by looking out, inviting the viewer to enjoy their embodied dream-like state, as if seeing the world through their gaze.

While the figures stem from his imagination, much of Klein’s subject matter is influenced by his marital relationship. His settings are a synonym for experience; whether they are his own or someone else’s, as he says ‘what happens in a painting is a kind of theatre of life no matter how abstract’.

Images and One Paved Court exhibition views here.