Henry Klimowicz solo exhibition opens in The Tremaine Gallery, January 4.

Posted December 14, 2011

Henry Klimowicz is an artist based in Millerton, New York, who works exclusively with what he calls “unimportant materials”; specifically, corrugated cardboard. With this humble substance, Klimowicz creates a myriad of configurations in structure, texture, and composition. Sometimes intricate and fanciful, alternatively grandiose and ambitious, Klimowicz always transcends the mundane cultural associations cardboard invokes. There is no effort to mask cardboard’s limitations or inflate its capabilities; what we see is what we get – and we get to see so much. His installations are a tour de force where the artist’s process merges with the artist’s product.

The creative impulse in his work is extremely accessible precisely because of his use of such a familiar, often forgotten, component of our everyday lives. To quote Klimowicz: “I see this work as very positive because of the lengths that have been traveled by the material from trash to beauty. It is a statement about the possible—that all things can be redeemed, often for more than what was deposited.”

There is no escaping the consideration of the labor involved in creating Klimowicz’s cardboard constructions. Every crushed panel, every cut and curled cardboard frond speaks volumes about the passage of time and how it is spent. To contemplate his work is to contemplate the value of patience and the beauty of methodical precision, as well as to appreciate the meditative space art affords us in a rushed, hectic world.

The Tremaine Gallery will present recent work as well as a site-specific installation. The exhibition will open to the public January 4, 2012, with a reception for the artist Saturday, January 7 from 4:00 - 6:00 p.m. Mr. Klimowicz will also be artist-in-residence at Hotchkiss during the month of January, conducting workshops and creating a collaborative artwork with students.

The Tremaine Gallery at The Hotchkiss School is located in the main building of the school's campus. Six major exhibitions are presented from September through June every year. The spacious, climate-controlled gallery serves as a teaching and learning center for the visual arts and as a regional hub for the exhibition of artists' work in all media from throughout the world. The Tremaine Gallery is open Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Sunday, noon to 4 p.m. For further information, please visit www.hotchkiss.org/arts, or phone (860) 435-4423.

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