On View: “Ego Tripping: An Exploration of Self-Portraits by Stephan Marc Klein”

“Ego Tripping: An Exploration of Self-Portraits” by Stephan Marc Klein

October 6 – 29, 2023

Reception: Saturday, October 14, 2023, 2 – 5 pm

510 Warren Street Gallery

510 Warren St., Hudson, NY

www.510warrenstreetgallery.com

510warrenstgallery@gmail.com

(518) 822-0510

Hours: Fridays & Saturdays, 12-6, Sundays, 12-5

Hudson, NY – 510 Warren Street Gallery is pleased to present a show of works in multi-media by Berkshire artist Stephan Marc Klein titled “Ego Tripping: An Exploration of Self-Portraits” which will begin on Friday, October 6 and continue until Sunday, October 29, 2023. A reception with the artist will be on Saturday, October 14^th from 2 to 5 pm. All are welcome.

Stephan Marc Klein has been making self-portraits since he was 13 years old. At times, he has used himself as subject matter just because he was an available and handy model–sometimes literally so, as he has made many drawings over the decades of his hand (and feet). At the same time, he has been attracted to self-portraiture to investigate other issues. “My work,” he says, “may not answer the question, ‘Who am I?’ but it explores diverse ways to ask.” Through multiple ways of seeing and portraying himself, Klein endeavors to examine issues of subjectivity, and to interrogate the idea of the uniqueness, and originality, of the self.

“We are living,” Klein states, “in a time of glorification of the self: of self-improvement, self-fulfillment, self-importance, of a cultural and social emphasis on our own uniqueness. Our cellphones and other cameras are designed to take ‘selfies.’ Through social media outlets like Instagram and Facebook, we diarize, publicize and share the quotidian events of ourselves. So often, when I read interviews with artists, no matter what their medium or genre, the discussion comes around to self-expression and self-exploration. But when we–artists or not–express ourselves, what is the ‘self’ we are expressing? How is it formed, controlled, directed, and contained?”

“Ego Tripping” is a show about many things: it is about growing old and looking back. It is about anonymity and fame. It is about longing. It is about exploring issues of synchronicity and diachronicity. It is about questioning what lies inside of forms–a dialectic of surface and volume. It raises questions of uniqueness and replication. It is a form of autobiography. Most of all, it is a collection of individual works that strive together to address larger questions of identity.

Stephan Marc Klein is an award-winning retired architect and professor emeritus of interior and exhibition design. He holds a doctorate in Environmental Psychology. He has been making art since childhood, and at age 84 continues to experience the joy of creating. He now lives in Great Barrington with his wife, fellow artist and writer Anna Oliver,

Works by gallery artists Ian Clyde, Lionel Delevingne, Janene Gentile, Trevor Hunter, Kate Knapp, Jim Koester, John Lanteman, Betty Leigh, Nina Lipkowitz, Mike Magnotti, Hannah Mandel, Paul Nueckel, Anna Oliver, Marilyn Orner, Peggy Reeves, Ken Sahr, Demoy Shilling, Doris Simon and H. David Stein are also on display.