MICHA KLEIN
ART FOR THE PEOPLE
Micha Klein (1964) explores the media based culture of our time using advanced computer technology.
Art historical references, youth culture, and mass media are the recurring subjects of his work.
Starting out as a painter, growing tired with the post-modern condition and looking for a new field of artistic innovation, he discovered an unused Amiga computer in the cellar of The Rietveld Art Academy in 1987, and quickly recognized the opportunities it offered for new artistic directions, ways to present art, and ways to redefine the position of the artist. Technology was still in its infancy, but the possibilities of what would become multi-media were already evident to Klein, who dropped the paintbrush in favor of the mouse immediately. Klein stood at the cradle of the digital revolution that transformed photography and art forever.
"My work must be as seductive as advertising and entertainment. If not, it loses its visibility in a culture saturated by media, constantly bombarding us with commercial messages. Since these messages have become part of the mainstream culture, it is vital that artists especially can infiltrate this culture with their subversive ideas.”
Micha Klein
"It was the death of photography, and the revenge of painting: the time when photography died on the operation table of the ‘Paintbox’, and was dissected with surgical precision into it’s smallest parts, to be redefined with the manipulative methods of painting"