Giovanni’s Room is pleased to announce the first solo exhibition by New York painter Jackie Klein. The exhibition, titled “Fifth Quarter,” opens on Friday, November 8 and runs through Sunday, December 8. 

In Fifth Quarter, Klein’s figures meet the gaze of the viewer, with deadpan expressions and a slight glint in their eyes, perhaps sharing a joke we’re not in on. Or just as likely, they turn anxiously toward the sea, cast against unruly waters and the iridescent underbellies of dead fish. By probing this dichotomy of where to look — facing the burdens of our collapsing world head-on or turning back with an ironic wink to the camera — Klein probes the ambiguities of our present condition with a deft humor. 

As a native of Los Angeles, Klein absorbed the mystical undercurrent of the city from a young age. That uncanny feeling that if you make the right turn off the freeway you might end up in some glorious or sinister parallel reality. All those subtle, unseen mechanisms, those fever dreams that make the whole metropolis tick. Klein’s figures, fully formed in suits and heels, become avatars of this other world made manifest on the beach. Klein has produced a vividly imagined alternate world that extends beyond the edge of the canvas.

Klein’s brushwork combines rigid precision and soft edges to conjure these illusive dreamscapes. The clean lines of office wear are sharp against the waves. These are costumes of a time that may soon be lost entirely: the formal workplace with its strictures and water coolers. What are we to make of these clothes without a place, stripped of their original function? These are the surreal juxtapositions that animate Klein’s tableaux: digging holes to nowhere in a pencil skirt, chasing sandy invoices, desk chair wheels threatened by the rising tide. 

Text by Caroline Wallis