“Observing the soul, we keep an eye on its sheep, on whatever is wandering and grazing.”
—Thomas Moore
Margeaux Klein is a Santa Fe-based visual artist who believes that soul finds its home in the ordinary details of everyday life. The first recognition of her own soul emerged when, as a child, she visited an artist’s studio. Mesmerized by the wrinkled tubes of paints, messy brushes, and curious tools, she imagined herself to be the artist in the tableau and then went on to live it.
Over the course of her career she has employed numerous materials, including ceramics and photographic processes, to explore ideas central to the meaning of soul. Today she focuses on the humble stone.
Describing the inspiration for her current body of work Klein states, “After reading a deeply moving passage from W. G. Sebald’s The Emigrants, I went out for a walk. I was contemplating the gravity of life when I noticed a string flung over a wall with a rock tied to the end of it. I understood it to be a simple counterweight to something mysterious on the other side, but the symbolism catalyzed my feelings in such a profound way that I felt inspired to do a series of drawings titled "The Weight of Things." The drawings speak to the human condition—to our freedom on the one hand, and to the gravity of what we carry on the other.” Klein’s drawings are finding expression in other media, particularly sculpture, in the development of what she envisions as The Library of the History of the Working Stone.
Klein has been widely exhibited in museums and private collections, including the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. She has lectured at universities, taught workshops, and spoken at conferences. Highlights include an appointment as visiting professor in the graduate art department at the University of Illinois, Champaign, and workshop instructor in the Fall Arts program at Oklahoma Arts Institute, Quartz Mountain. Most recently Klein received a Master’s degree in Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, California, and a one-month studio residency at Ucross Foundation in Wyoming.