Massey Klein is proud to present hands on, a group exhibition featuring works by Martine Johanna, Matthew Larson, and Caleb Nussear. Each artist relies on the hand whether within their artistic process or as the focal point of their work. A nod to craft, the exhibition eludes to a time where digital media was not prevalent. Each work exemplifies the rich, tactile nature of the hand-made image. Highly informed by pattern and color, the exhibition brings warmth to the cold winter months.

Martine Johanna is a Dutch artist known for her vivid paintings with both figurative and abstract elements. Each of Johanna’s delicately rendered figures convey a sense of immersion within their own “internal psychic landscape.” The work is imbued with a mysterious narrative and sensation of knowing that each character in the work has a full and complex history that the viewer can never completely comprehend. However, the placement and interaction of the hands within her works are very telling. The paintings have a signature prismatic palette, visually stimulating and playful while expressing an underlying sense of uncertainty and unrest.

Matthew Larson is a Brooklyn based artist who uses hand-bleached yarn to create meticulous fiber works. Unlike traditional warp-weft weaving, individual threads of yarn are layered, by hand, into Velcro creating precise patterns and striations of color and texture.The artist’s powerful “tapestries” recall the Minimal painting style common to the Op Art movement of the 60s. While highly minimalist in design, Larson’s fiber art provides a fresh approach to the trajectory of traditional tapestry in art history. His systematic layering conceals the artist’s hand while revealing the impactful, yet subtle, nature of the works.

Caleb Nussear is a Brooklyn based artist whose work is informed by the overlap of complex formal geometries, physical and mathematical concepts of higher dimensionality, the natural landscape, and the sensual, tensile quality of line drawing. By folding paper, the artist creates complex surfaces that emerge from a two-dimensional plane into captivating multi-colored sculptural landscapes.