Contact Information:

Margo Klass
Winter

PO Box 83657
Fairbanks, Alaska 99708
(907) 451~9119
Summer
PO Box 184
Corea, Maine 04624
(207) 963~2044

E~mail: margoklass@acsalaska.net

Website: http://www.margoklass.com

Biography:

Margo Klass taught art and art history in the Washington D.C. area for over twenty years before turning full attention to her own artistic pursuits.  Reflecting her training in art history, she created artists' books inspired by the structures of medieval altarpieces.  From the beginning, the pieces emphasized the aesthetic forms of found objects.  Her recent work features more distilled images with a greater concern for space surrounding her chosen objects.  Such spare images are intentionally introspective and call attention to the elements of their composition.Margo Klass has a long history of exhibiting in group shows in such places as the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Pyramid Atlantic, and the Creative Arts Workshop in New Haven, CT.  In the spring of 2004, she had her first solo show at the Dadian Gallery in Washington D.C. Margo and her writer husband Frank Soos (see the prose poems that accompany Margo's pieces) live in Fairbanks, Alaska, during the winter and spend their summers in Corea, Maine. During the Summer of 2007, Margo will be one of four Artist-In-Residence selected from a pool of 48 applicants at Denali National Park & Preserve in Denali Park, AK. Each artist will be in residence at the park for ten days between June and September. During their residency they stay in the historic East Fork cabin at Mile 43 on the Park Road. They will each offer at least one public presentation for visitors and will donate a piece of their artwork to the park. The Park Bulletin states:

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.

 


Artist's Statement :

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,
Pratt Museum, Homer, AK, June-August 2008

Box Constructions with texts by Frank Soos,
Spurling House Gallery, Corea, Maine, Summer 2008

Doll,
International Gallery of Contemporary Art, Anchorage, AK, July 2008

Box Works,
Moss Gallery, Northeast Harbor, Maine, August 2008

Countenance: Modern Masks of the North,
Well Street Art Company, Fairbanks, AK, January2009

Lives of the Saints: Contemporary Icons, Reliquaries and Altarpieces with texts by Frank Soos,
Alaska Pacific University, Anchorage, AK, February 2009

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:

One through Eight
mixed media
9" x 7" x 5"
2002 © Margo Klass

Work in Other Galleries


Campanile II
Mixed media, 2007
13.5 x 14 x 9 in.

Gate Way
Mixed media, 2005
13.25 x 14.75 x 7.5 in.

Permanent Press
Mixed media, 2006
17 x 7.5 x 4 in.

Denali
Mixed media, 2008
30 x 20 x 9.5"

Indian River Run
Mixed media, 2007
14.5 x 9 x 4 in.

Midpoint
Mixed media, 2007
20 x 14 x 8 in.


Red Herring
Mixed media, 2007
8 x 10.5 x 3 in.

Rube
Mixed media, 2007
6.25 x 5 x 2 in.

Icon
Mixed media, 2006
18 x 9.5 x 5 in.

Tatami Room II
Mixed media, 2007
8.75 x 6.25 x 3.5 in.
Stick Eater
Mixed media, 2007
9.5 x 9.5 x 4 in.

Rock Paper Scissors III
Mixed media, 2007
8 x 7.75 x 3.5 in.

The artwork on this site is protected under United States and International copyright laws. 
The visitor agrees not to reproduce, publish or distribute any of the displayed material without permission from the artist.

Participating artists donate 30% of MAG on-site sales proceeds to benefit the Davistown Museum. When we sell work that is exhibited on the MAG website but held elsewhere, we solicit a 10% donation. If the artist or another gallery sells the artwork, no commission is solicited or requested. We hope the MAG website exposure will help sell more artwork from the artists' own studios or in galleries which show their work.