"In Bless Babel, each painting builds around a singular central niche, suggesting the absence of a subject. Confronted with this vacancy, the viewer finds themselves at the center of Kleberg's geometric abstractions. Influenced by architectural and ritualistic spaces, the works in Bless Babel investigate the tropes through which conception is framed by institutional or personal belief. Kleberg's paintings are not interested in objective truth, but rather in how belief transforms our relationship to space and objects."
"This exhibition derives its title from Donald Barthelme's 1987 essay Not Knowing, in which the writer and critic considers uncertainty, improvisation, and discovery as fundamental to the creative act. Barthelme speaks of commentary, elaboration, exegesis, and contradiction as necessary modes of engagement between a piece of art and the earlier works of previous makers that inform it. Babel and the scattering of languages offer an example of how different approaches to the same concept are inherent to human expression."
Each painting centers on a singular niche that implies an absent subject and positions the viewer within geometric abstraction. Architectural and ritualistic influences shape compositions that examine how institutional and personal belief frame conception. The works emphasize belief’s role in transforming relationships to space and objects rather than asserting objective truth. The title references Donald Barthelme’s Not Knowing and foregrounds uncertainty, improvisation, discovery, commentary, and contradiction as creative modes. Shapes drawn from Tramp Art frames and Italian Renaissance devotional objects generate constrained motifs and multiple resolutions. Color choices and scumbled surfaces create tension between ecstasy and oblivion.
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