“Forget It” graphite, acrylic, gesso on mylar

“Untitled” oil on silver gelatin print on panel,8″x10″

“Untitled” oil on panel, 6″x6″

“Untitled” oil on panel

From the artist:
Misha Kligman’s recent body of work titled “Mouthful of Silence“ will be on view at the Art & Design Gallery on the campus of the University of Kansas from March 29th through April 3rd, 2009. In his work, Kligman attempts to gain insight into the identity fragmentation and cultural dualism that occur as a result of an immigrant experience. Kligman examines the ideas of home and cultural belonging, as well as the history of the Russian Jewish diaspora, the Soviet ethnic repressions and the Holocaust through the lens of his family’s history and personal experience. The artist’s intent is to recover and piece together the remains of a culture that have been lost or scattered across the world due to time, extermination, wars, and assimilation.

The work in the exhibition references domestic objects from the artist’s childhood, as well as photographs from Kligman’s personal family collection, and historical archives of the Soviet government among others. In his mixed-media drawings and paintings, the artist alludes to the hidden violence of the imagery through the physicality of the marks and the unsentimental surface treatment. The people portrayed are literally erased and disfigured. Their identity lost or destroyed. By combining drawing and painting with the use of such materials as salt, ash and gold, Kligman aims to transform the images from mere nostalgic artifacts to the containers of cultural memory.

Misha Kligman was born in Kazan, Soviet Union in 1978 and immigrated to the United States in 1995. He received his BA in Art from Cleveland State University in 2000. In the past seven years, Kligman’s work has been exhibited in numerous regional and national shows. The “Mouthful of Silence“ is Kligman’s second solo show and will conclude his work towards an MFA degree in painting at the University of Kansas.

Opening Reception:
Sunday, March 29th at 2pm
University of Kansas Art & Design Gallery (1467 Jayhawk Blvd in Lawrence, KS)

posted by: Tricia Rock

Tags: art, Art & Design Gallery, design, gallery, opening

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 26th, 2009 at 8:18 pm and is filed under art & design, the rathaus. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.