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Biography: Margo Klass is a student of aesthetic space who creatively uses light to produce sculptural boxes. She studied Northern Renaissance artists for their use of spaces receding into the distance, and she has been influenced by the interior spaces and exterior landscapes of Japanese temples. During her residence in the park she will use sketching, watercolors, and photography to observe and absorb the monumentality of Denali.Find out more: Denali Park Bulletin You can also find Clues to American Sculpture, a book which she illustrated, on Amazon.com.
I am a collector of objects. On neighborhood walks, on the beach, in junk shops and flea markets my eyes snap to objects with qualities that transcend their physical selves. They need not be beautiful or valuable. Each one reaches some part of me that goes beyond aesthetic attraction, an intangible recognition that gives an urgent quality to our interaction. A stone that seems to distill an essence, an old game piece faded from use, discarded pieces from an iron smith, a weathered twig. Such objects surround me in my studio, they are my sculptural medium. Images emerge, often triggered by the shape of a single object. An old ax head, for example. I see it primarily for its abstract self, with a certain color and texture, and in a certain position. Intuitively I join it with other objects. In my mind's eye they float weightlessly, they dance their parts, turning, touching, sometimes merging. Then, in a moment of spontaneous knowing I see the resolution, I realize total satisfaction and from then on the composition can be no other. The box constructed around the composition frames the image and defines its architectural space. Skylights and windows, most often made of mica, break down barriers between interior and exterior spaces. Sometimes an object triggers a memory or personal narrative, which I recall symbolically through a juxtaposition of objects. At other times I wish to suggest an enigmatic question, or create an ironic, playful image. Recent work often reflects my travels in Japan where I absorbed the spaces and forms of Japanese gardens and temples, and studied the contemporary architectural works of Tadao Ando. In each case my sculptural response is an intimate reflection, a way to represent my response to experience. Uniting all my images is an expression of quiet, a meditative stillness that comes from within. They can be seen as pauses in the rapid pace of the lives we lead, like the little roadside shrines one finds everywhere in Japan. My sculptures are small in scale and hung at eye level so that viewing them is at close range and by necessity a solo experience. I hope they breathe quietly, and gently invite the viewer to personal sanctuary.
Galleries and Exhibitions:
All Alaska Juried Art Exhibition 2008, Box Constructions with texts by Frank Soos, Doll, Box Works, Countenance: Modern Masks of the North, Lives of the Saints: Contemporary Icons, Reliquaries and Altarpieces with texts by Frank Soos, Lives of the Saints: Contemporary Icons, Reliquaries and Altarpieces with texts by Frank Soos, Bunnell Street Gallery, Homer, AK, December 2009 Work in the Permanent Collection:
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