About

Statement

One thing that has always tied David Stewart Klein’s work together has been the need to express something strong, volatile, fragile, fleeting. To him that can be the intimacy and vulnerability of a portrait, an argument of a couple, the silence between figures, the strength of a individual standing or fluidly in motion. Klein takes his subjects and amplifies the compositional space with what is being represented, a fragment of his mind and the people that inhabit the world around him. Whether it is in oil, or acrylic paint, sculpture, or drawings done in charcoal, ink or pencil, his works read as intense, thought provoking and beautiful. Klein will use the color pallets necessary to show the mood he seeks to convey, whether in varying vivid colors or in a more limited dynamic range. He aims to capture the essence of his subjects and intends to show his audience his belief that no matter their background, the one thing present in us all is our souls. We all have something to say underneath our silence.

Exhibition list

Select Exhibitions list

Solo exhibitions:

2021:

A Beautiful Chaos

Tag Gallery
Los Angeles, CA - July 2021

2020:

Welcome to the New World: As Its Always Been

Tag Gallery

Los Angeles, CA - July/Aug 2020

2019:

Reflections

Blue 7 Gallery

Santa Monica, CA - March/April 2019

Group exhibitions:

Klein has participated in over 100 group exhibitions since beginning his exhibiting career in 2011.

2022:

2021:

14 group exhibitions including:

Artavita: Artist of the Year 2021 Competition

Chosen as one of the Artists of the Year

December 2021

M.A.D.S. Gallery: HYSTERICA

Fuerteventura, Canarias Islas & Milan, Italy - November 2021

Tag Gallery: Proud

Los Angeles, CA - June 2021

Fusion Art : 3rd Annual Lines, Shapes & Objects Art Exhibition(Juried, Online)

Palm Springs, CA - June 2021

Kunsthaus RoZig: Blau.

Virtual Gallery. June 2021

Gallery 825: Apocrypha.

Los Angeles, CA - May 2021

Tag Gallery: Body Politic.

Los Angeles, CA - Jan 2021

2020:

8 group exhibitions including:

Tag Gallery: Small Works.

Los Angeles, CA - Dec 2020

Gallery 825: Non sequitur

Los Angeles, CA - August/Sep 2020

Gallery 825: Exalted One (Online exhibition)

Los Angeles, CA - August 2020

Tag Gallery: Virtually Unlimited

Los Angeles, CA - July 2020

Brittany Davis Gallery: Art is Life

online exhibition - July 2020

2019:

Blue 7 Gallery: Transportation

Santa Monica, CA - April/May 2019

Blue 7 Gallery: Magic in Nature

Santa Monica, CA - June/July 2019

2018:

Blue 7 Gallery: Ordinary to Extraordinary

Santa Monica, CA - March/April 2018

Blue 7 Gallery: Mysterious World

Santa Monica, CA - May/June 2018

Blue 7 Gallery: Music in Art

Santa Monica, CA - Aug/Sep 2018

Blue 7 Gallery: It’s a Celebration

Santa Monica, CA - Dec 2018

2017:

Blue 7 Gallery: Light and Shadow

Santa Monica, CA - Dec 2017

2015:

Otis College of Art and Design Senior Exhibition

Los Angeles, Ca - - May 2015

Beecaso: Save the Bees exhibition

Pasedena, CA - Sep 2015

2014:

11 group exhibitions including:

The MUZEO Museum, Andrew Carnegie Gallery

Anaheim, CA – March 2014

Otis College of Art and Design, Senior Exhibition: Enneagram

Los Angeles, Ca - - Fall 2014

2013:

12 group exhibitions including:

Gallery Sev Ven: One year Anniversary show

Huntington Beach. CA - May 2013

KCRW's Edward Goldman mention on radio: Otis College of Art and Design: Seventy-Four(74)

May 2013

Warehouse of Contemporary Art: 10 Year Anniversary show

Anaheim, CA – Dec 2013

2012:

33 group exhibitions including:

DADA: Entartete Kunst III

Downtown Los Angeles, CA Feb 2012

2nd st. Cigar Lounge and Gallery (Downtown Los Angeles Art Walk)

Feb 2012 - Aug 2014

Gallery Sev Ven: Gallery opening gala

Huntington Beach, CA

The Think Tank Gallery, L’art Pour L’art: The Painted Dot

Los Angeles, CA - June 2012

Rochester Art House, Figure Model Appreciation Gala

Westwood, CA - June 2012

the Hive Gallery: Masters of Body Paint

Los Angeles, CA - August 2012

RawArtists: Radiance, The Key Club

Hollywood, CA - August 2012

Rochester Art House, Humans Make Art: Leo group show

Westwood, CA - August 2012

The Hive Gallery: The Rise of Cthulu

Los Angeles, CA - October 2012

Otis College of art and Design: Open-house for Sculpture

DADA: Entartete Kunst 4

Downtown Los Angeles, CA - December 2012

Warehouse of Contemporary Art

Anaheim, CA - December 2012

2011:

Barrette Art Gallery: The Food Show

Santa Monica, CA - May 2011

Other:

Artavita: Artist of the Year 2021 Competition

Chosen as one of the Artists of the Year

December 2021

Los Angeles Times(Interview):

Review: A beautiful chaos: The art of David Stewart Klein

by Regina Weber

September 2021

VoyageLA(interview): Rising star: Meet David Stewart Klein

August 2021

Member Los Angeles Art Association(LAAA) 2020-

Society of Illustrators Los Angeles

Associate

2020-

LA Art Documents feature documentary: Welcome to the New World

summer 2020

ARTslanT: Winner in the 3rd 2012 Showcase competition

May 2012

Radio Sancho (Guest speaker on Internet Radio)

Apr 2012

Mentioned on:

LA Times

Muzeo.org

Artillery Magazine

VoyageLA

OCWeekly

MADS Gallery(Italy/Spain)

LAartparty.com

WOCA.com

Society of Illustrators Los Angeles

Tag Gallery

Los Angeles Art Association

Life

David Stewart Klein was born in raised in Queens, New York to two musicians by profession and is a 4th generation visual artist on his mothers side. Klein used most of his childhood and teenage years teaching himself the styles he loved and expressing himself through drawing. His first education was at age 8 at the Roslyn School of Fine Art in New York where he developed his interests and skills in painting, charcoal, and pastel. During this time he was influenced by Norman Rockwell and close friend, Ronald Workman, a New York based artist. Prior to his next educational experience, He became enamored by certain comic book artists such as Todd McFarlane, Greg Capullo, Michael Turner, cartoonist Jim Davis and caricaturist Al Hirschfeld, and he soon began to create his own comics and characters. Not long after this he found his first mentor, comic book artist Christian Torres who inspired him to go forward with his dreams for several years. During high school, Klein and his family left New York and moved permanently to Los Angeles, CA. During his 3rd year in high school, Klein was selected to attend a course at the Young Artist Studio at Otis College of Art and Design, taught by influential artist Franklyn Liegel. After high school, Klein attended Santa Monica College and found his love of Fine Art and eventually decided to attend Otis to finish his BFA Degree. During his time in college he fell in love with the works of Van Gogh, Salvador Dali, Zdzislaw Beksiński, Gustave Dore, comic book artists Möebius and Frank Miller, and developed a love for Japanese ink drawing. Before beginning undergrad studies at Otis, Klein became adamant about starting his exhibiting career and decided to venture into the Los Angeles scene without any contacts. From meeting people at openings he began to plant seeds and stir up noise about his unseen talent and was soon offered a spot in a largely attended show in Downtown Los Angeles by a group called DADA. This immediately caught the attention of several art curators and gallery owners and in the following months accumulated exhibitions in areas all over Los Angeles and the neighboring Orange County. By the end of the year, 2012, Klein had participated in nearly 40 group exhibitions, and by the time he earned his BFA from Otis, he had participated in over 60. In the year 2018, Klein held his first solo exhibition in Santa Monica, California at the Blue 7 Gallery featuring 60 pieces of art, mostly paintings. In July 2020, Tag Gallery hosted his second solo exhibition; Welcome to the New World: As It's Always Been, one of the very early shows in Los Angeles to directly respond to the COVID-19 pandemic in person, a show which was documented in a 12 minute film by film-making duo LA Art Documents.