This body of work consists of paintings rooted in the landscape as a site of a journey. The paintings position themselves as a space of flux between origin and destination. The road here is used as a transitional place of uncertainty, discovery and danger.
Figurative elements are depicted in physical proximity to one another, pointing to the relationship of interdependency and closeness. When children appear in many of the paintings, they serve as reminders of risk and potentiality, revealing the journey’s perilous qualities. The world that the paintings evoke is not a remembered place (as in much of Kligman’s previous work) but one of premonition and imagination.
Toward an Unknown Sky took place at the Studios Inc’s Gallery (Kansas City, MO) in 2019. This body of work painted with the exhibition space in mind was a culmination of a three-year residency at the Studios.
