Maine Jewish Museum

The Maine Jewish Museum is excited to present Deborah Klotz’s body of work “STILL.” The exhibition will be on view from September 15 through November 13, 2016. There will be an Opening Reception with the artist on Thursday, September 15, 2016 from 5pm to 7pm, an Artist Talk on Sunday October 30 at 2pm, and First Fridays – October 7th and November 4th. Admission is free.

The exhibit “STILL” shares the recent series of prints, drawings, and sculpture: Cast (Off /On/Away), Single Pair, and Compression/Compassion Stones from sculptor and image-maker, Deborah Klotz, who employs diverse materials and methods to design and fabricate her work.

“Garments from my immediate and extended family members are transformed through lamination between thin sheets of handmade paper, as fingerprint textures are revealed with graphite and pressure. The garments are dropped, floated, folded, thrown, and rolled. They expand and push against the borders of the paper holding them close. They speak of departure, growth, immense presence (corpus, the physical body), and its twin, the interior life of memory (absence). The garment works also describe a strategy both ancient and contemporary, both animal and human, of growth through the casting off or shedding of surfaces. Once laminated, the previously worn clothing holding movement, experience, and the physical form of the owner, becomes still, under a layer of paper.”

“Traces of structure form again through compression and intention. Using discarded paper, single stray socks, outgrown or well-worn favorite garments from my family, as well as screen printed moments drawn with crocheted metal wire, steel chain, and photograms of clothing silhouettes; I build while watching both the ground and the sky.”

Deborah Klotz holds an M.F.A in 3-Dimensional Art and a B.F.A. in Sculpture from Massachusetts College of Art, as well as a B.A. in English and American Literature from Brandeis University. Her work is in private and public collections in New England, Florida, California, Colorado, New York, Washington D.C., and internationally she has exhibited in Korea, Israel, and England.

Deborah received partial funding for initial stages of this project through the Maine Arts Commission Project Grant.

The exhibition will be on view from September 15 through November 13, 2016. There will be an Opening Reception with the artist on Thursday, September 15, 2016 from 5pm to 7pm, and First Fridays – October 7th and November 4th. Admission is free.

The focus of this exhibition is of famous artists such as Carol Chute, Harold Garde, Larry Rivers, plus several scenes of Paris and New York, includes remembrances of his roots in war torn Austria during the second World War.

Charles was a hidden child in WWII. His father was arrested in 1943 and sent to Auschwitz on Train 21 “Number 779” and gassed upon arrival. His visit to the camp was to pay homage to his father. Deep feelings emerge from these images that remind us to never forget the atrocities that took place.

“I have been a photographer as long as I can remember. I never had a studio although I worked as an assistant for years in New York City. My first job was with Allan Arbus who was then doing commercials and fashion. Dianne Arbus used to come into the studio to print. Robert Frank was an influence, as well as Harold Feinstein. In the 1970s I worked for art galleries and often went to the Cedar Bar in the village in New York. There I met many artists and writers from Jack Kerouac to Warhol to Larry Rivers and others. I did work with the Leo Castelli gallery.

I am mostly a street photographer. I do my best to be as true to what I see as possible. In Maine I meet artists like Harold Garde and Robert Indiana whom I knew when he had a studio in lower Manhattan. Like a flaneur I wander the streets and photograph what draws me, in a face, or the wonderment of a city like Paris or Portland.” Charles Rotmil