Noeleen Kleve is a Printmaking artist based in Kommetjie on the Southern tip of South Africa. She teaches classes and workshops from her studio and loves sharing the joy of printmaking with others. Working mainly in intaglio, her work explores a fascination for tactility and texture - focusing on themes of the land, spiritual-geographical connections and environmental issues.
We had the amazing opportunity of visiting Noeleen Kleve in her studio in Kommetjie and creating this special insight into her work and teaching.
Watch it here: (you might learn something about Printmaking too!)
Working mainly in intaglio and largely with etching on copper and brass plates, Noeleen’s inspiration comes from the environment and humanitarian issues - both global and from personal experience. Texture plays a large part in her work and it is offset by the ethereal nature of yearning and mapping and a fascination with the land from above. With close family living across the world, she has an experience of the yearning that is created by human migration and the paradox of being “in touch” through digital communications, but out of touch physically.
This she translates through the slow, tactile processes of printmaking: excavating textures, evoking memories and focusing on the in-between (or liminal) nature of etching through reworking, inking and printing.
'Search : Edition 3/12'
Etching / 34 x 17 cm
About Noeleen:
Several decades in the evolving world of graphic design led her to seeking more tangible art forms and in 2006 she started a degree in Visual Art and discovered Printmaking as the new love of her life. She particularly enjoys the process of making decisions as you go: starting with some visual imagery and an idea, thinking in terms of a visual metaphor, but not forcing it and just allowing the process to take over.
Artist Statement:
"Life’s journey takes one along many roads – often with unexpected turns and distances to cover. The past few years have drawn me deeper into exploring the joys and many possibilities and ‘magical moments’ of printmaking. The intriguing intricacies of etching never cease to fascinate me - as the copper plate transforms from one state to another, and finally to the hand-inked print.
This metamorphosis relates to my visual expression of the liminal, in-between, transformative journey of life. In particular I am currently working with a theme of “Sensucht” - which means yearning or longing - as I respond to physical and spiritual spaces of yearning, as well as environmental concerns and issues close to my heart, especially the plight of the honeybee.
Since my work is evocative (rather than representative), I hope to stall the viewer into a moment of introspection...or a time of contemplation; where perhaps a thought might shift some direction towards positive transformation…wherever that might resonate for you.
Mostly my artmaking brings me great joy and I am grateful to be able to express myself through what I love doing, daily."
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Yield : Edition 17/20
ETCHING / 21 x 21 cm
The other part of her passion is teaching. She holds classes and workshops in her studio with the aim of igniting a passion for printmaking in others and sharing what she knows. She loves the interactions with other artists and working through all the different processes that printmaking involves.
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Perpetual : Edition 3/8
Etching / 27 x 26 cm | Bearing : Edition 4/10 e.v.
ETCHING / 27 x 39 cm | R.E.M.INI[SENSE] I : Edition 4/10
ETCHING / 24 x 29 cm |
