Rae Klein
Waiting In The Field

December 11, 2021 – January 22, 2022

The Valley is pleased to present our first solo exhibition with Michigan based painter Rae Klein, her largest solo presentation to date. Waiting In The Field presents a series of new paintings in which animals are embodied as representations of human emotion. Languishing in the field, these creatures mesh with their surroundings, creating layered, dream-like compositions which give way to a host of discernible and indiscernable forms with hooves, ears, snouts, and often, uncannily human eyes. A halation effect, as though seen through a vaseline covered lens, asks the viewer to strain to focus. Like afterimages, bright shades of cyan, turquoise, and verdigris pervade this body of work, lingering in the visual field long after one turns away.

Often cited as employing classic surrealist tactics in her paintings, Klein’s work addresses the fuzzy edges of memory, rejecting a single narrative interpretation of the scenes she fabricates. A general feeling of tension is developed within each painting as the central figure or figures feel just out of reach, obscured behind a layer of wet frosted glass. The immediacy of the unfolding situation is felt dually through the loose painterly brushwork, and tightly rendered sections of the painting, alluding to moments lodged in our subconscious that lasted for only a split second in reality. Sphinx-like creatures with composite human and animal characteristics send subliminal messages, while mournful dogs and horses lie wistfully, or in the throes of panic. There is much to be pondered here while searching for resolution. Klein pushes us just past our comfort zone, looking for the line where events cross from in, to out of one’s control.