Sheila Klein

Sheila Klein, visual artist, straddles the worlds of art and architecture. Klein has been called “chief re-translater of everyday objects and a manipulator of familiar and archetypal images.” She is making the world as she sees it one piece at a time making a pillow or a planet.using a suprising combination of materials to propose solutions to the homogenization of our environment. Her output occurs in the studio, on the street, and in art institutions.

Klein has exhibited widely at diverse organizations including P.S.1 Institute for Art and Urban Studies, New York, Memory and Lands of the 20th Century Florence, Italy, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Museum of Art and Design, New York, and La Foret Museum, Tokyo, Japan. Klein’s work is widely published in art journals and the mainstream media including the New York Times, Times of India, and National Public Radio. She is the youngest artist included in the book 50 Northwest Artists. She practiced architecture in the early 80’s as a member of the award winning architecture firm group A2Z.

Klein first lived in the Skagit Valley in 1976 and returned in 1995, where she lives on a farm in Edison with her husband Ries Niemi.

Sheila received a 2013 GAP to assist with travel and living expenses associated with her project in Ahmedabad, India. The project is the coninuation of the work to create an architectural textile that is a collaboration between Muslim women who are part of the Sarkhej Roza Mosque community, The Sarkhej Roza Mosque Foundation, National Institute of Design students, and Sheila. In addition to the main artwork, NID students will work with the artist to design products which the women can produce to create a steady income stream to fund projects at the Mosque and in the community.