Chad Kleitsch
Chad Kleitsch was born and raised in New Jersey. He earned his B.A. in photography at Bard College in New York in 1991. He has since lectured at Bard College, Yale University, Sarah Lawrence College, and The Center for Photography at Woodstock. He has lead classes in photography at several colleges and art centers, such as Bard College, Simons Rock, Woodstock Center for Photography and LaGuardia College.
Chad Kleitsch's work has been featured in numerous exhibitions in museums and galleries throughout the United States such as The Art Institute of Chicago, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum CT, CCS Bard Hessel Collection NY, The Center for Photography at Woodstock NY, Berkshire Museum MA, Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art NY, Ariel Meyerowitz Gallery NYC, Yancy Richardson Gallery NYC and Carrie Haddad Gallery Hudson NY. In 2010 he received The Center for Photography Woodstock Photographers Fellowship Fund Award Fellowship.
His work has appeared in publications such as The New York Times, Time Magazine, Money Magazine, Chronogram, and The Mountain Record.
![Photo of Chad Kleitsch](/art/Chad Kleitsch new portrait.jpg)
Botanical Mind: Black Series
Botanical Mind: White Series
Many years ago I lived near a large garden. I would see them all in their unique stages of life. They were always open, innocent and beautiful.
These are portraits of beings whose life is brief and whose silence and perfection are wondrous. "Spring is in the frozen branches, buried beneath three feet of snow." Dogen Zenji, 13th CenturyStill Life Like
Water
Inside staring out can put your mind in the way. Mercurial in spirit these images are an opportunity to be lost. With your thoughts now missing, when you see it-all of you- what you see is completely reflected.
Fabric
works on paper
I take original documents - letters, found paper, postcards, recipes - and treat them as film by back lighting them during a digital scanning process called "scanography". The images are then printed on archival German ink jet paper at an exhibition size of 40x50 inches. The project utilizes the archives from the New York Public Library. Starting in September 2005, I began scanning works from the original manuscripts archives of The Pforzheimer Collection of Shelly and his Circle as well as The Berg Collection. The first piece I select for scanning was, appropriately, a poem by Byron because William Henry Fox Talbot used a somewhat similar process, in 1840, and made a photogram with a Byron poem. Then onto Mark Twain, Emily Dickinson, e.e. Cummings, Jack Kerouac, John Cage among other great works of literature. Needless to say, there is an incredible amount of exciting material to work with and I envision this as an ongoing series.
Lights
The depiction of light in photography has been it’s constant. With the introduction of digital imaging the definitions of traditional photography have blurred and transformed. This work questions the current issues of image process, print medium and the progressively confusing debate between real or “computer generated” images.
These images draw references from classic depictions of light through art history, from a carved sun on Egyptian temple to a Frederic Church sunset or Gerhard Richter’s Candle paintings. This work also makes references to the spectrum of popular mass media such as the contemporary films 2001: A space Odyssey and Close encounters of the Third Kind as well to the generic theatrical light show at a concert or public event.
Images depicting light(s) are often the vessel for many generations to fill with their own conscious and unconscious needs. They stir up several basic human emotions, often asking questions relating to an original source or beginning.
These computer-generated images of light sources ask the same questions but pointed toward the issues of what is photography depicting now in a Photoshop world. Is it real or computer generated- does it matter anymore and is the message of light still the same.
Lost and Found: Ellis Island ![](images/expand_12.gif)
Asylum ![](images/expand_12.gif)
White Box ![](images/expand_12.gif)
Resume
Solo Exhibitions
”Going Back to My Old School” Bard College NY, May 2016
Home Grown: Fellowship Recipients 2005-2014, Center for Photograhy, Woodstock,
NY, November 2014
“Botanical Mind” Eclipse Gallery, North Adams MA, Aug 2013
Works on Paper, The Camera Club of New York, May 2011
White Box- Photographs of the Unseen Museum,
The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT Jan. 2010
White Box, Ariel Meyerowitz Gallery, NYC, NY, 2003 Community Access, Puck Building, NYC, NY, 1999 Asylum, E3 Gallery, NYC, NY,1999
Rilke’s Eighth Elegy, Zen Mt. Monastery, Mt.Tremper, NY, 1997 Lost & Found – Ellis Island, Carolyn J. Roy Gallery, NYC, NY, 1994 Mansfield University Art Center, Mansfield, PA, 1994
Group Exhibitions
40th Annual PhotoRegional, Opalka Gallery Sage College of Albany, Albany, NY March 2018
Photograhy of the 21st Century, Curated by Kate Menconery, Troy, NY 2016
Home Grown: Fellowship Recipients 2005-2014, Center for Photograhy, Woodstock, NY, 2015
Wall & Rha Inaugurial Gallery Opening Exhibition, Millbrook, NY 2014
“On Time and Place”: Celebrating Scenic Hudson’s first 50 Years, October 2013 Grand Central Station NYC.
Eastern Standard: Indirect lines to the Hudson River School, Green County Council on the Arts, Catskill NY July 20 - September 20, 2013
Art Meets Art: Perspectives on and Beyond Olana, Olana's Coachman's House Gallery / Hudson Opera House June 2013
Soft Focus, Carrie Haddad Gallery Hudson NY June 2013
“On Time and Place”:Celebrating Scenic Hudson’s first 50 years, Nyack Library July 2013
Works from the Hudson Valley Visual Art Consortium Collections, Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, New Paltz, NY, August 2011
Warren St., Hudson Opera House, Hudson, NY June 2011
Pissed Elegance, Stephen Cohen Gallery, Los Angeles CA, May. 2011
Photography Now, Juried by Vince Aletti, CPW, Woodstock, NY, April 2011
Still Life in Color, Carrie Haddad Photographs Oct. 2010
Found, Stephen Cohen Gallery, Los Angeles CA, Sept. 2010
Architectural Photography, Carrie Haddad Photographs Oct. 2009
Of and About Wood, Walter Randel Gallery, May 2009
A Look Inside, Carrie Haddad Photographs, April 2009
Born of the Moment and Method, Walter Randel Gallery, December 2008
Paper, Carrie Haddad Gallery, July 2008
Grace, Peer Gallery, NYC, NY, January 2008
The Set Up, Nicole Fiacco Gallery, Hudson NY September 2007
Ex Libris, Lascano Gallery, Great Barrington MA July 2007
Into The Garden, Babylon Fine Arts, Housatonic, MA May 2007
The Regional Triennial of Photographic Arts, CPW, Woodstock, NY, September 2005
Photographing the Museum, Yancy Richardson Gallery, NYC, August, 2005
Adieu - A Farewell Exhibition, Ariel Meyerowitz Gallery, NYC, June 2005
7th Annual Photographic Exhibition, Carrie Haddad Gallery, March 2005
This is not an Archive, CCS Bard Hessel Collection, Bard College, NY, 2005
Still Life & Stilled Lives, Ariel Meyerowitz Gallery, NYC, 2005
Greed Envy Jealousy Fear, Time Space Limited, Hudson, NY, 2004 Haddad Lascano Gallery, Great Barrington, MA, 2004
Wild Flowers, Ariel Meyerowitz Gallery, NYC, 2004
Inaugural Exhibition, Haddad Lascano Gallery, Great Barrington, MA, 2004
6th Annual Photographic Exhibition, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, 2004
Inside/Outside? Observations in Nature, Upstate Art, Phoenicia, NY, 2003
Out of the Studio, Dorsky Museum of Art, New Paltz, NY, 2003
The World We Live In, Upstate Art, Phoenicia, NY, 2003
Guns & Wounds, White Box Gallery Annex, NYC, 2003
Hudson Alley Project, Time Space Limited, Hudson, NY, 2002
Interiors & Exteriors, Williamsburg Art & Historical Center, Williamsburg, NY, 2002
Extraordinary Photographers, Carrie Haddad Gallery Hudson, NY, 2002
The Sidewalk Never Ends, Contemporary Street Photography, The Art Institute of Chicago, 2001
Share the Vision, Cooper Union, NY, NY, 2000
Five Photographers, Columbia Green Comm. College, Hudson, NY, 2000
52 Artists We Like, Wall St. Viewing Room, NYC, 2000
Winter Show, Wendy Cooper Gallery, Madison, WI, 2000
LTD, Margaret Bodell Gallery, NYC, 1999
Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY, 1999
Third Annual Photo Exhibit, Warren St. Gallery, Hudson, NY, 1994
Photograph the Place, Event & Person, Warren St. Gallery, Hudson, NY, 1993
Photographs By Chad Kleitsch, Merchant & Ivory Foundation, Claremont, NY, 1993
1992 Exhibition Of Photography, Judged by John Szarkowski, Pittsfield, MA, 1992
National Art Exhibition, World Trade Center, NYC, 1992
Wood, Fiber, Steel, Warren St. Gallery, Hudson, NY, 1992
Kanazwa College of Art, International Art Exhibition, Kanazwa, Japan, 1991
Awards
Woodstock Center For Photography Fellowship Winner 2010
Center Project Competition Runner Up 2007
Merchant & Ivory Grant, 1993
REVIEWS
Art News, Shooting the Side Show, February 2010 The New York Times, January 29, 2010
Art News, Still Life & Stilled Lives, Oct 2005
Daily Freeman, Thinking Inside the Box, February 2005 The New York Times, Photography Review, July 30, 2004 The New Yorker, Photography Review, July 2, 2004
Time Out, Art Reviews, August 12,2004
Albany Times Union, Life in the Back Lane, June 2002
The Independent, Photographers Explore the Limits, January 2002
Fortune Magazine, Art Collecting for Amateurs, February 2001
The Independent, Five Photographers, November 2000
The Independent, Hudson Valley Artists, May 1999
Hudson Valley Newspapers, Review: A Pleasure of Stripes, May 1999 Albany Times Union, Tradition & Beyond, May 1999
The Paper, Hudson Valley Art, May 1999
The New York Times, Film Maker Benefit, 1993
Taconic Newspaper, To Capture A Revealing Moment, February 1993
The Paper, Merchant & Ivory Foundation: Sharing The Wealth, May 1993