Founding member Andrew Klein (USA) has been painting and drawing seriously for about 65 years. Growing up in Chicago, he was fortunate to drink from a very rich cultural fountain of world class museums, particularly the Art Institute of Chicago and The Field Museum of Natural History.  He haunted the galleries of these magnificent institutions since his early teens, and a single painting by Vincent Van Gogh, a monk like self portrait, inspired him to become a painter. He delayed his commitment to paint for several years , visiting many of the great European museums, and pursuing an academic education (West African Anthropology and biology) at Northwestern University, in Evanston, Ill.

 

In 1962 Klein decided to enroll full time in The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and has since exhibited his work in Chicago, Terre Haute Indiana (Indiana State U.), St. Louis, Boston, Tel Aviv, and SMA. For over twenty years, he taught art at high schools and universities in all of those places.

His work can be loosely described as ‘figurative’ , currently focused on plant life, in an approach that combines the ‘real’ and the imagined.