Buddhas in the Garden, a solo exhibition of more than 50 paintings by Hedy Klineman, will be on view at the gallery at Tibet House US from October 3 through December 12, 2013. An opening reception will be held on Thursday, October 3, 6-8 pm.

Hedy Klineman’s work from the past decade employs vibrant color and spiritual imagery to offer the keen social insight that has marked her forty-year career. The exhibition includes acrylic paintings and silkscreens on canvas and paper. Returning to a familiar face, the ethereal stone Buddha that graced her 1990s oeuvre, Klineman deploys the mystical figure again and again like a mantra, coalescing the collection and adding a calming, meditative presence.

The repetition, in the style of Pop Art, offers a sly commentary on the mass production that has left the world awash in identical icons, like the soup cans and Marilyns of Andy Warhol. But if these Buddhas have become symbols of an inescapable assembly line, Klineman also coyly neutralizes them by presenting them in natural scenes. The sacred comes down to earth as Klineman converges the sublime and the everyday. The subjects are grounded in a reality inspired by the lush landscapes of Barbados, the gardens of East Hampton, and her rooftop in Manhattan. The paintings take the viewer out of their technologically driven world and remind them of the importance of the natural world.

A short film by Zachary Skinner, about the artist, her practice, her process, and her gardens will run continually throughout the exhibition.

Born in Hamburg, Germany, and raised in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Hedy graduated from Cooper Union, where she encountered the maximalist, full-canvas Abstract Expressionism that has shaped her style since.

Her works have been exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Rubin Museum of Art in New York; the Hood Museum of Art, Hanover, NH; and Vizcaya Museum & Gardens, Miami; among others. Solo exhibitions of her work have been on view at Bridgewater Lustberg Gallery and Benrimon Contemporary in New York; Dorothy Blau, Bal Harbour, FL; and Vered Modern, East Hampton, NY; and at various international institutions. Her paintings can be found in the private collections of Richard Gere, Uma Thurman, Patrick McMullan, Shelley and Donald Rubin, and others.

Tibet House US, established in 1987 at the request of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, is a non-profit educational institution and cultural embassy working to preserve, restore, and present Tibet’s unique cultural and spiritual heritage by means of a permanent center, with a 2,000-square-foot gallery, library, archives, developing traveling exhibitions, print publications, and media productions.

Tibet House US
22 West 15th Street
New York (NY) 10011 United States
Tel. +1 (212) 8070563
zola@tibethouse.us
www.tibethouse.us

Opening hours
Monday - Friday from 11am to 6pm
Sunday from 11am to 4pm