Tyler Kline at Youngblood Gallery
Picture and words by Chilly
A continuing quest for adventure has taken Tyler Kline through towns home to various klansmen and drunks, militant lesbians and nouveau riche settlers. He and his family currently call Philadelphia home, where he enjoys the confluence of various urban stimuli: the song of the CSX engines grinding steel on rail, the streamlined rhythmical rowers piercing the river, the inherent history of America’s first capital currently filled with working class neighborhoods. A place where even sinister street characters seem too ambitious to panhandle.
He sees the entire spectrum of visual art there for him to draw inspiration: from the earliest cave painters, through the European masters, to guerilla work being done on the 21st century street. “When I paint on a wall, that’s where I get my strength from,” says Kline, acknowledging that this hints at ritual magic, but also that sometimes things need to be kept unspoken. In his search through various mediums, he seeks out that which will tap into an ancestral lineage of craftsmen, finding what his hands already know how to do. Coaxing intuition into our concrete world, exploring the brutality of fact and aesthetic truths. Dexterity is also very much a part of Kline’s character, from the illustration of various found canvases to aerodynamics on a skateboard. In his work he is simultaneously very sincere, but also “at play,” while never straying from a solid work ethic.
Kline’s current show, “Nonesuch,” is at Youngblood Gallery in Atlanta through November.
Click for an audio interview with the artist (MP3 — opens in new window)
Chilly is a traveller, raconteur and workingman currently based in Atlanta.
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