-
Artist: Jeana Eve Klein (American, b. 1975)
American artist. Jeana Eve Klein’s studio practice has coalesced around the broad theme of value: how society in general assigns value (or worthlessness) to objects, and how the art world, specifically, assigns value to works of art, craft and design. These ideas are made tangible through large mixed media quilts and tiny obsessive embroideries. The quilts draw—both visually and conceptually—on Klein’s infatuation with abandoned houses. She uses digital photography and inkjet printing to capture the reality of abandonment, superimposed with her painted imaginings of the houses’ former lives. In the embroideries, Klein analyzes the value of the artist’s hand by neurotically making (and counting) French knots, and then somehow convincing others to do her stitching for her. In her latest project—begun after the inauguration of Donald Trump—Klein is considering the false sense of participation, the ineffective activism, and the echo chamber of social media via text-based works constructed of hand-cut recycled fabric. Klein earned an undergraduate degree from North Carolina State University and MFA from Arizona State University. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including recent solo exhibitions at William King Museum (Abingdon, VA), Jasper Arts Center (Jasper, IN), Rehoboth Art League (Rehoboth, DE), College of Lake County (Grayslake, IL), and Cary Arts Center (Cary, NC). Images of her work have appeared in American Craft and several volumes of Surface Design Journal. She has been the lucky recipient of one Foundations Fellows grant, two University Research Grants and many Undergraduate Research Assistantships, all generously supported by Appalachian State University. She is a 2014 recipient of a Craft Artist Fellowship from the North Carolina Arts Council.