About

Jeana Eve Klein is an artist and educator based in Boone, North Carolina, where she is Professor of Fibers (and—reluctantly—sometimes a low-level administrator) in the Art Department at Appalachian State University. Her home includes a husband, two kids, two guinea pigs, and a few house plants she’s trying to keep alive.

Klein’s wide-ranging studio practice addresses recurring themes of labor and value, social media and other digital relationships, language and communication, the inherent meaning in materials, the fallibility and malleability of memory, and the limitations of documentation. As a textiles generalist and conceptually-driven artist, the processes and materials she uses vary from project to project, including traditional textiles techniques such as weaving and knitting as well as digital media, installation, and social practice.

In her two current projects, Klein is comparing lived experience with its representation. Cruise Pix (Toss) reimagines the photographic documentation of her grandparents’ travels from the 1990s. The bead-woven recreations of these photographs become larger than life pixelized images for public display – essentially transforming them into a physical version of the typical social media sharing of today. In Imaginary Weaving, Klein is contrasting the slow labor and knowledge-building of weaving non-traditional materials with the artificial intelligence-generated version of the equivalent experience. With both of these projects, Klein is highlighting the disconnect between representation and reality, particularly when filtered through a digital lens.

Klein’s work has been exhibited widely, including solo exhibitions at OZ Arts (Nashville) and ArtSpace (Raleigh) and group exhibitions at the Museum of Design (Atlanta) and PULSE Contemporary Art Fair (Miami Beach). Klein earned her undergraduate degree from North Carolina State University and MFA from Arizona State University. She is a past recipient of the North Carolina Arts Council Individual Craft Artist Fellowship.

Klein has exactly one tattoo (a blue dot on her right foot based on a dye spill), is a passionate-yet-mediocre gardener, and challenges anyone to a game of Boggle.