Multimedia artist Claudia Kleefeld creates museum quality original oil paintings, fine art studies, installation and art videos and photographic works. Her classical oil paintings focus on the human form in nature and display her mastery of old world painting techniques. From reinterpretations of Italian masters to figurative fine art nudes, Kleefeld's paintings appeal to both novice and seasoned gallery art collectors. Her most recent works incorporate many years of study into symbolism and representation.
Kleefeld's photographic works include documentary and celebrity photography of Falco (Amadeus), Dennis Hopper, Michael Hearne and other well known faces. Her recent photography studies Man and Nature. throughout the years, Kleefeld has used the camera as a format to document people in their natural environments.
Kleefeld speaks about one of her first photographic series "I am fascinated and inspired by people and thus I have often found what is truest to me through re-creating human form. There are many reasons why my subject is often the female figure; She is close to me, to who I am, and I find her the most primal and the most challenging. The 'External/Internal' photographic series, 1985 was created while I studied at UCLA with the use of a slide image given to me by artist Robert Heinecken. I used this image repeatedly, often on top of many of the nudes inside of the room. This series revolves around the relationship between inner self and projected self. The viewer is placed in the position of confronting the facades they fix upon themselves and others, examining classical views of life and it's symbolism. This is in many ways the root that my other works have grown out of."
Kleefeld speaks about some of her video works stating "Parallel to my focus in 'External/Internal', I have been engaged with the relationship between what is created and what is 'real'. I use the still image becoming a live model in both video and performance as seen in the performance video from 1993 "A Waking Dream" and also in "Joining Duality of Male and Female". Many of these works are unfolding the dream; Softening the lines between art in it's physical form, and what is alive, while recognizing the intangible or that which comes to us from out of this world. Throughout many years of this process, the symbols of daily life and those used in classical iconography have become a poignant aspect of my imagery. In this process of creation, life's magic is pronounced."
Kleefeld's most recent body of work is exhibiting at Woman Made Gallery in Chicago, and will travel to Los Angeles in December of 2012; In "Patterns of Nature: The Spiral and Interconnectedness", she has synthesized her understanding of form through natures patterns. She explores the spiral form as seen in a bee's back, rock, Andromeda Galaxy, the Octopus, Seahorse, Man's Eye or Fingerprint and marks this pattern as one of the primary forms dating back to ancient civilization. About this work, Kleefeld states "My research, and creation imagery linked with the written word, has led to scientific discoveries about the Spiral form. My research into the Spiral, and its Patterns in Nature, give rise to my artistic investigations: paintings, drawings, book spiral installations, writings and found nature objects. Thus by invoking the spiral and all it encompasses, I aim to reconnect others and myself to nature, causing a collective remembering of sacred and recurring forms."
Kleefeld's photographic works include documentary and celebrity photography of Falco (Amadeus), Dennis Hopper, Michael Hearne and other well known faces. Her recent photography studies Man and Nature. throughout the years, Kleefeld has used the camera as a format to document people in their natural environments.
Kleefeld speaks about one of her first photographic series "I am fascinated and inspired by people and thus I have often found what is truest to me through re-creating human form. There are many reasons why my subject is often the female figure; She is close to me, to who I am, and I find her the most primal and the most challenging. The 'External/Internal' photographic series, 1985 was created while I studied at UCLA with the use of a slide image given to me by artist Robert Heinecken. I used this image repeatedly, often on top of many of the nudes inside of the room. This series revolves around the relationship between inner self and projected self. The viewer is placed in the position of confronting the facades they fix upon themselves and others, examining classical views of life and it's symbolism. This is in many ways the root that my other works have grown out of."
Kleefeld speaks about some of her video works stating "Parallel to my focus in 'External/Internal', I have been engaged with the relationship between what is created and what is 'real'. I use the still image becoming a live model in both video and performance as seen in the performance video from 1993 "A Waking Dream" and also in "Joining Duality of Male and Female". Many of these works are unfolding the dream; Softening the lines between art in it's physical form, and what is alive, while recognizing the intangible or that which comes to us from out of this world. Throughout many years of this process, the symbols of daily life and those used in classical iconography have become a poignant aspect of my imagery. In this process of creation, life's magic is pronounced."
Kleefeld's most recent body of work is exhibiting at Woman Made Gallery in Chicago, and will travel to Los Angeles in December of 2012; In "Patterns of Nature: The Spiral and Interconnectedness", she has synthesized her understanding of form through natures patterns. She explores the spiral form as seen in a bee's back, rock, Andromeda Galaxy, the Octopus, Seahorse, Man's Eye or Fingerprint and marks this pattern as one of the primary forms dating back to ancient civilization. About this work, Kleefeld states "My research, and creation imagery linked with the written word, has led to scientific discoveries about the Spiral form. My research into the Spiral, and its Patterns in Nature, give rise to my artistic investigations: paintings, drawings, book spiral installations, writings and found nature objects. Thus by invoking the spiral and all it encompasses, I aim to reconnect others and myself to nature, causing a collective remembering of sacred and recurring forms."
© 1986-2024 Claudia Kleefeld