Some Proof

Classic Cars West is proud to present Some Proof, a two-person painting exhibition by Kate Klingbeil and Milo Moyer-Battick.

A proof, in printmaking, is a test-run or draft. It marks a period of experimentation when the printmaker can alter the works before a run. In math and science, proofs trace the lineage of discovery; they pave the way for others to follow one abstract concept to the next. Proof also provides legitimacy to one’s solipsistic stories. Through proof, we assure others of our affirmations, and in doing so, join narratives.

Some Proof, Kate Klingbeil and Milo Moyer-Battick’s work, embodies all of these characteristics. Both printmakers-turned-painters, Klingbeil and Moyer-Battick vary dramatically in their mark making, use of color, and imagery, but in their spatial construction and introspection, we find unity. In both, there are intersections of the known and unknown, macro and micro, planned and spontaneous, universal and personal.

Kate Klingbeil’s layered painted and printed pieces are a cacophony of narratives. An investigation into the psyche, her works show us the jumble of living, the saturated imagery, people, and places we mix together in the soups of our unconscious. She stitches together unlikely objects into lush scenic webs and, like her pieces, her process is an amalgamation of vivacious ambition that is not focused on showing the ‘how’ but the ‘what’ – and by any means necessary.

Milo Moyer-Battick’s constructed paintings allow material and metaphor to pave their way in his investigations. The forms, which often read as a cross between Rorschach blots and familiar cartoon portraits, emerge of their own volition and then recede again, like Magic Eye optical illusions. They are psychological pieces wherein the esoteric haze reads as a visual mantra for decoding one’s existential crisis. His work leaves us squinting into the static, surprised by the mirror that lies beneath.