Hedy Klineman is a painter living in New York City. She has been painting for over 40 years and is known for portraits of New York celebrities and colorful works based on Asian Buddha’s and deities created with silkscreen on canvas done in a manner influenced by her friend Andy Warhol. Her paintings have been shown at Tibet House US, Patterson Museum of Contemporary Art and The New England Museum of Contemporary Art.
Klineman developed, in the early 1980s, a very personal style of portraiture called “Fashion Portraits.” She became known as a chronicler of the downtown art scene and of uptown socialite personalities, using an unusual collage-assemblage technique. Sitters were asked to contribute pieces of clothing that represented them. Then Klineman would adhere the clothing to the canvas along with painted elements and objects to create a mixed media portrait. Andy Warhol donated a pair of glasses, Henry Geldzahler gave her a hat and Julian Schnabel gave her the clothes he painted in. Keith Haring, Mary McFadden, Bret Easton Ellis, Larry Rivers, Betsey Johnson and Jane Holzer all donated items that were used in their portraits. These were shown at Harm Bouckaert Gallery in 1984 and Sensory Evolution Gallery in 1986. During this period, she also painted day glow nudes and figures. Latter in the 1980s as the Cold War ended, she turned to political content using silkscreened newspaper images of current events. These were shown at Rempire Gallery in Soho in 1991 along with some of the first Buddhas.
1990s
In the 1990s Klineman embarked on a spiritual journey studying meditation and yoga. She then began using deities from India, China and Indonesia. Using multiple silk-screens, Klineman overlapped Hindu and Buddhist imagery over textured backgrounds that sometimes included gold leaf. A major show of this work was held at Bridgewater Lustberg Gallery in 1996.
2000s
Through the 2000s Klineman focused on the Buddha as subject matter and produced series of large multi paneled silkscreen paintings where the Buddha is repeated in bright Pop colors called “Buddha’s in the Garden.” Concurrently she continued to make hand painted Buddha’s, still lives, landscapes and abstracts.
Currently
Recently Klineman has continued portrait painting with a series called “African American Portraits” depicting prominent African Americans using African masks in silkscreen collage. Some of her subjects are Russell Simmons, Mary Schmidt Campbell and Jessye Norman. Paintings from this series were exhibited at Benrimon Contemporary in 2012. In 2013, Tibet House US presented "Buddhas in the Garden," an exhibit of Klineman's work from the previous 10 years.
