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
Solo exhibitions:
2021:
TBA solo exhibition:
Tag Gallery Los Angeles, CA - July/Aug 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:
2021:
Tag Gallery: Windward. Los Angeles, CA - Feb 2021
Tag Gallery: Body Politic. Los Angeles, CA - Jan 2021
2020:
Tag Gallery: Small Works. Los Angeles, CA - Dec 2020
Tag Gallery: Abstract . Los Angeles, CA - Sep 2020
Gallery 825: Non sequitur(Online) . Los Angeles, CA - August/Sep 2020
Tag Gallery: Member Open Summer 2020. 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: Magic in Nature Santa Monica, CA - June/July 2019
2018:
Blue 7 Gallery: Music in Art Santa Monica, CA - Aug/Sep 2018
2017:
Blue 7 Gallery: Light and Shadow Santa Monica, CA - Dec 2017
2015:
Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, Ca - Senior Exhibition - May 2015
Beecaso: Save the Bees exhibition Pasedena, CA - Sep 2015
2014:
Warehouse of Contemporary Art at
The MUZEO Museum, Andrew Carnegie Gallery, Anaheim, CA – March 2014
Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, Ca - Enneagram - Fall 2014
2013:
Gallery Sev Ven: One year Anniversary show, Huntington Beach. CA - May 2013
Otis College of Art and Design: Seventy-Four(74) - 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:
DADA: Entartete Kunst III, Downtown Los Angeles, CA Feb 2012
2nd st. Cigar Lounge and Gallery , CA (Downtown Los Angeles Art Walk) -Feb 2012 - Aug 2014
Gallery Sev Ven, Huntington Beach, CA (Gallery opening gala)
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
DADA: Entartete Kunst 3.5, The Rochester Art House, 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
The Hive Gallery: The Rise of Cthulu, Los Angeles, CA - October 2012
2011:
Barrette Art Gallery: The Food Show, Santa Monica, CA - May 2011
Other:
Member Los Angeles Art Association(LAAA)
Associate member Society of Illustrators Los Angeles
LAArtDocuments featured 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:
Muzeo.org
OCWeekly.com
LAartparty.com
WOCA.com
Artillerymag
Society of Illustrators Los Angeles
Taggallery.net
LAAA.org
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.