Esther Kläs
Come again
Peter Blum Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition by Esther Kläs of new sculptures, works on paper, and installations entitled, Come again. This is the artist’s fifth solo exhibition with the gallery.
With the exhibition Come again, Esther Kläs converges disparate media and forms in sensitive spatial relationships, bringing a distinctive energy and perspective onto their surroundings. The installations comprised of reduced sculptures and works on paper underscore physical presence and manners of viewing through a relationship of scales, positionings, and materials. The ways in which environment and form are navigated begins with a consideration of her low-elevation, floor-based sculptures, that confront from below. Inviting repeated observation, Come again, continues with a bridge to the wall-based works on paper that create their own internal spatial relationships with forms in a now flattened plane. Also creating an encounter from above, a ceiling-suspended sculptural element drifts over a flattened concrete surface on the floor, uniting space. Organically presented in groupings, with repetitions creating a rhythm, the works are close to, yet removed from reality. Appearing at once as independent presences and projections of a poetic imagination, the works emphasize intuitive gestures and continue Kläs’ investigations into form, openness, and perception.
Installation view of Esther Kläs, Come again, Peter Blum Gallery, New York, 2022
Esther Kläs, SEE YOU, 2021
Esther Kläs (b. 1981, Mainz, Germany) graduated from the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf (2007) and received an MFA from Hunter College, New York (2010). She currently lives and works in Barcelona, Spain. Museum exhibitions include The subtle interplay between the I and the me, Kolumba, Cologne, Germany (2021); Esther Kläs: Maybe it can be different, Fondazione Giuliani, Rome, Italy (2020); Esther Kläs: Start, Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv, Israel (2019); Proof of Life, Weserburg Museum of Modern Art, Bremen, Germany (2018); Esther Kläs: ola/wave, Proyecto AMIL, Lima, Peru (2017-2018); Esther Kläs: Our Reality, Fondazione Brodbeck, Catania, Italy (2015-2016); Whatness, Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Germany (2015); Drawing Redefined, deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, Massachusetts (2015); Esther Kläs: Girare Con Te, Marino Marini Museum, Florence, Italy (2014); Esther Kläs: Better Energy, MoMA PS1, Long Island City, New York (2012).
"I move step by step, spread, come back.
Jump Forward.
Leave behind/discover new forms.
Use them."
— Esther Kläs
Installation view of Esther Kläs, The subtle interplay between the I and the me, Kolumba Museum, Cologne, 2020
"For Kläs, drawing and sculpture are both registers for the body. Her irregularly shaped resin totems are analogues for the human form, while her drawings, with their vestiges of action and movement, offer indexical signs of the absent figure."
— Veronica Roberts, Drawing Redefined, deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Massachusetts, 2015
Installation view of Esther Kläs: Start, The Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv, 2019
"Over the last ten years, artist Esther Kläs has developed a distinctive visual language that harks back to the great sculptural traditions while simultaneously challenging contemporary sculptural norms. Kläs makes works that are reduced to as little as necessary to communicate; works that are close to yet removed from reality."
— Nicola Trezzi, Esther Kläs: Start, The Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv, 2019
Installation view of Esther Kläs, Come again, Peter Blum Gallery, New York, 2022
Installation view of Whatness, Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Germany, 2015
"Even though most of Kläs' sculptures are abstract, they evoke anthropomorphic physicalities or ancient ritualistic sites. They radiate dignity and personality, while developing a beguiling sense of naturalness in the space. They oscillate between a mysterious presence and projections of poetic imagination."
— Friedrich Meschede, Whatness, Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Germany, 2015
Installation view of Esther Kläs: Maybe it can be different, Fondazione Giuliani, Rome, 2020
"Kläs transports us at the exact moment of creative genesis, a genesis that becomes the foundation of the artistic act that is completed in full autonomy."
— Stefano Pane, "Esther Kläs: Maybe it can be different," Juliet Art Magazine, March 2020
Installation view of Esther Kläs, Come again, Peter Blum Gallery, New York, 2022
Installation view of Esther Kläs: Better Energy, MoMA PS1, New York, 2012
“The first answer is freedom, but also the conclusion after a long answer would always be freedom. There is no definitive search for something particular, it is a path in which I find myself.”
— Esther Kläs
Installation view of Esther Kläs, ES 1-8, 2022
Installation view of Esther Kläs, Come again, Peter Blum Gallery, New York, 2022
Watch the performance Meet by Esther Kläs and Gustavo Gomes at Kolumba Museum, Cologne in 2020.
Esther Kläs and Gustavo Gomes, DE-COR (lake), 2021, performance, Kolumba Museum, Cologne
"These artists approach their respective practices like dancers and involve their bodies either as a tool, a site for exploration, or both. Sculptors Heinz Breloh and Esther Kläs fashioned their respective tactile sculptures by hand; human traces and physical marks on the sculpted surfaces bring their works to life."
— Maximiliane Leuschner, "Eight Commandments of Choreography," Brooklyn Rail, August 2021
Installation view of Esther Kläs, Come again, Peter Blum Gallery, New York, 2022
“I start and then it goes, it continues.”
— Esther Kläs
Click here to listen to a recent Yale Radio interview with Esther Kläs.
Click here to view a video of a recent conversation at The Brooklyn Rail between Esther Kläs and Tom McGlynn.
*All works are subject to availability; all prices are subject to change.
© 2022 Blumarts, Inc.