about

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

1999-2022
Exhibitions Director, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT.

In his capacity as a curator at The Aldrich Museum Klein organized over 90 exhibitions contemporary art, and has edited and/or contributed essays to over 15 major publications, including Mark Dion: Drawings, Journals, Photographs, Souvenirs, and Trophies 1990-2003 (Aldrich Museum, 2003), Fred Wilson; Black Like Me (Aldrich Museum, 2006), No Reservations: Native American Culture and History in Contemporary Art (Aldrich Museum, 2006), Gary Panter (Picturebox, 2008), Elizabeth Peyton: Photographs (Damiani, 2009), Type A (Indianapolis Museum of Art/Hatje Cantz, 2010), The Domestic Plane; New Perspectives on Tabletop Art Objects (Aldrich Museum/Gregory R. Miller & Co., 2018), Frank Stella’s Stars, A Survey (Aldrich Museum and Gregory R. Miller & Co., 2021) and Hugo McCloud: from where I stand (Hatje Cantz/Sean Kelly Gallery, 2021). Significant exhibitions organized by Klein at The Aldrich include Jack Whitten: Evolver (2014), Michael Joo: Drift (2014), Nancy Shaver: Reconciliation (2015), Penelope Umbrico: Shallow Sun (2015), Steve DiBenedetto: Evidence of Everything (2016), Kay Rosen: H is for House (2017), Alex Schweder and Ward Shelley: Your Turn (2017), Weather Report (2019), Twenty Twenty (2020), Tim Prentice: After the Mobile (2021), Duane Slick: The Coyote Makes the Sunset Better (2021), and Prima Materia: The Periodic Table in Contemporary Art (2023)

1992-1998
Assistant Director, Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum.

1996-2006
Connecticut Artists Collection Advisory Committee, State of Connecticut.

1990-1992
Registrar/Preparator, Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum. 

1984-1988
Art Department Chairman, Wooster School (Independent School, Grades 7-12), Danbury, CT.

1980-1988
Sculpture, metal casting, and drawing instructor, Wooster Art Center, Danbury, CT. Curator of Reception Center Gallery, Wooster School, 1984-1988.

1978-1980
Prison Art Instructor, Enfield Maximum Security Correctional Facility, Enfield, CT.
Art Teacher, CETA Artist in the Schools Program, Swift Middle School and Watertown High School, Watertown, CT

SELECTED LECTURES, CONSULTING, RESIDENCIES

2025

Moderator, panel discussion, Sight and Sound: Artists Consider Long Island Sound, with Bill Lucey, Soundkeeper with Save the Sound, and artists Christopher Coffin, Marion Belanger, Francis Ashforth, and Constance Old, Norwalk Art Space, Norwalk, CT

Moderator, panel discussion, Sight and Sound: Artists Consider Long Island Sound, with Syma Ebbin, Interim Director, Maritime Studies Program, University of Connecticut, Matthew McKenzie, Associate Professor, Dept. of History, University of Connecticut, Bill Lucey, Soundkeeper of Save the Sound, and artists Frances Ashforth, Martha Willette-Lewis and Brechin Morgan, The Alexey von Schlippe Gallery, University of Connecticut, Avery Point, Groton, CT 

Visiting Critic, MFA Glass Program, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI

2024
Dante Vaghi: UFO Pioneer; symposium keynote speaker: In the Cloud of Unknowing: Encounters with the UFO Phenomenon, Mildred’s Lane, Beach Lake, PA

Artist-in-residence, Peck Ledge Lighthouse, Westport, CT. Residency sponsored by The Norwalk Art Space, Norwalk, CT. (First resident artist in lighthouse built in 1906 on Long Island Sound.)

Public conversation with Margaret Inga Urías about her work during her exhibition Of Cloud & Ash: Eon, Epochs, and Eras at the Delaware Valley Arts Alliance, Narrowsburg, NY

2023
Visiting Critic, MFA Painting Program, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI

Visiting Lecturer, Alchemy Research Studio, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI

The Atomic Priesthood: A Conversation with Artist Bryan McGovern Wilson, Connecticut premier of Christopher Nolan’s film Oppenheimer, The Prospector Theater, Ridgefield, CT

2022
Visiting Lecturer, MFA Glass Program, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI

Visiting Lecturer, Alchemy Research Studio, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI

2021
Visiting Lecturer, MFA Program, SUNY, Purchase, NY

Panel Discussion, Your Turn, Richard Klein and Pamela Hovland in conversation with artists Ward Shelley and Alex Schweder, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT, January 8, 2021

2020
Richard Klein in Conversation with Helen Kauder and Mary Scott Himes, Quick Sessions with #UNLOAD USA, Quick Center for the Arts, Fairfield University, Fairfield, CT

Visiting Critic, Graduate Program, WCSU, Danbury, CT

2013
Visiting critic, MFA Glass Program, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI

2012
Visiting Lecturer, MFA Photography Program, Hartford Art School, Hartford, CT

Visiting critic, MFA Sculpture Program, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI

2011
Panelist, “Is Public Space Museum Space?” CAA Annual Conference, New York, NY

Visiting Critic, BFA Sculpture Program, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI

Visiting Lecturer, Department of Studio/Visual Arts, Hampshire College, Amherst, MA      

2010
Visiting Lecturer, “Town & Country”, Mildred’s Lane, Beach Lake, PA

Visiting Artist and Lecturer, Sculpture/Digital Media Program, William Paterson University, Paterson, NJ

2009
Visiting Lecturer, Professional Practices, Hartford Art School, Hartford, CT

2008
Visiting Lecturer, Fine Arts Graduate Program, Parsons School of Design, New York

Artist Mentor, MFA Program in the Visual Arts, The Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University, Boston MA

2006
Consultant, Creative Capital Foundation, Artist Retreat, Colgate University, Hamilton, NY

2005
Visiting Critic, MFA Program, SUNY, Purchase, NY

Visiting Critic, MFA Painting Program, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence

1999
Visiting Lecturer, Fine Arts Lecture Series, Quinnipiac College, Hamden, CT.

1998
Lecturer, “Uncommon Artists VI” symposium, New York University. Organized by the American Folk Art Museum.

1997
Visiting Lecturer, Worcester State College, Worcester State College, Worcester, MA. “Innocence and Guile: The Outsider and Contemporary Art”.

Individual Artist Fellowship Juror, Rhode Island State Arts Council.

Visiting Critic, Department of Visual and Performing Arts, Studio Program, Fairfield University, Fairfield, CT.

1996
Visiting Critic, Yale University School of Art and Architecture, Graduate Architecture Program.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

 Seisma Magazine, Prima Materia: Elemental Art, Paul Carey-Kent, April 2023

Two Coats of Paint, Richard Klein: Between Nature and Industrialization, Leslie Wayne, November 2021  

Whitehot Magazine, Level Ground: Richard Klein, The Understory at ICEHOUSE Project Space, Axel Bishop, October 2021

The New Criterion, The Critic’s Notebook: Tim Prentice: After the Mobile, James Panero, July 20, 2021

Hugo McCloud, essay From Where I Stand, Hatje Cantz Verlag and Sean Kelly Gallery, 2021

The New York Times, An Alignment of Stars in Perpetual Evolution, Jason Farrago, February 5, 2021 

Hyperallergic, An Ode to the Year That Will Live on in Infamy, Seph Rodney, March 2021

The Art Newspaper, Artists slow time by drawing out events in 2020, Dale Berning Sawa, February 2021

Arts Intel Report, Twenty Twenty, January 2021

D.E. May, catalog essay, published by The Ford Family Foundation, Visual Arts Program, Roseburg, Oregon, 2020

Wall Street Journal International Magazine, Frank Stella’s Stars, Noelle Newell, November 9, 2020

Frank Stella’s Stars, A Survey, essay Stella’s Star System, Gregory R. Miller & Co., 2020

The New York Times, Putting Pencil to Paper, Laurel Graeber, October 25, 2020

The New York Times Style Magazine, The Constellations of Frank Stella, Megan O’Grady, March 22, 2020

The New York Times Style Magazine, The Artist Eternal, Megan O’Grady, March 18, 2020

Hyperallergic, Getting Your Weather Report at the Art Museum, Louis Bury, February 15, 2020

Elephant, Artist on the Verge of an Ecological Breakdown, Charlotte Jansen, December 2019

Art New England, Think Local: New England Galleries Find Their Niche, Jacquelyn Gleisner, September/October 2018

The Brooklyn Rail, Analia Segal: Contra La Pared, Jonathan Goodman, September 4, 2018

Artforum Magazine, Analia Segal: Contra La Pared, May 2018, Vol. 56, No. 9

The Westport News, Performance architecture at the Aldrich Museum in Ridgefield, Joel Lang, March 26, 2018

After the Contemporary, essay: “Fahrenheit 2017,” limited edition artists’ book by William Powhida, edition of 50, 2018

Drip-Drop, Tick-Tock: Sculpture and Painting by Joseph Fucigna; exhibition catalogue essay: “Good Fences: Recent Sculpture by Joseph Fucigna,” Housatonic Museum of Art, Bridgeport, CT, 2018

Peter Liversidge: Surface Mail (or The Limitations of Magic), Introduction, co-published by Le Centre des livres d’artistes, Saint-Yrieix-la-Perche, France, and Peter Foolen Editions, Eindhoven, Holland, 2017

The New York Times, Rats on Main Street? Don’t Scream. They’re Art., Michelle Falkenstein, July 10, 2016

The Hartford Courant, Contemporary Artists’ Reinvented Paintings at Aldrich, Lyman Allyn, UCONN, Susan Dunne, November 12, 2015

The New York Times, Art Appreciation 101: Take A Nap, Susan Hodara, August 23, 2015

Artnews, Allison Smith: Material Girl, Trent Morse, January 2015

The New York Times, Conversation Between Works and Over Decades, Susan Hodara, December 21, 2014

Artforum Magazine, “500 Words,” David Diao, July 10, 2014

The New York Times, Exploring the Continuity of the Radical, Susan Hodara, June 29, 2014

Cabinet Magazine, article: Anthropomorphic Erratics Of Fairfield County, Connecticut, (Issue #53, summer 2014)

The Brooklyn Rail, book review: Living and Sustaining a Creative Life, Tamsin Doherty, September 4, 2014

Artnews, Ballpoint Magic, Trent Morse, January 2014

Living and Sustaining a Creative Life: Essays by 40 Working Artists, essay, edited by Sharon Louden, Intellect Books, Bristol, England, 2013

The Wall Street Journal, Celebrating the Minimalist’s Music, Andy Battaglia, December 14-14, 2013

The New York Times, Out of Many Themes, One Topic, Susan Hodara, September 23, 2012

The New York Times, Nothing But a Paper Trail for a Mustang Long Gone, Jim Koscs, July 8, 2012

Zing Magazine, Portrait of An Artist (curated project on the photographs of Elizabeth Peyton), Edited by Devon Dikeou, Issue #22, 2011

Fred Wilson: A Critical Reader, Pssst! A Conversation with Fred Wilson, Richard Klein and Fred Wilson, edited by Doro Globus, Ridinghouse, London, 2011

ARTnews, Shooting the Slide Show, Jackie Cooperman, February, 2010

The New York Times, Tag Sale is Fake, Poster Is a Roz Chast Artwork, Susan Hodara, June 4, 2010

Connecticut Cottages & Gardens, Generation Gap, Sharon Hoge, September 2009

The New York Times, Talking Heads Caught In Moments of Silence, Andrew Adam Newman, December 31, 2008

The New York Times, A Painter’s Social Network, Traced in Her Photographs, Karen Rosenberg, July 11, 2008

The New York Times, Really? It’s All Made of Glass?, Benjamin Genocchio, December 30, 2007

The Winston-Salem Journal (Winston-Salem, NC), Do the Eyes Have It?, Tom Patterson, November 25, 2007

AboutDrawing.org, Discussion Between Wynn Kramarsky and Richard Klein, Fifth Floor Foundation, New York, 2007   

The Advocate & Greenwich Time, Factory Direct New Haven Brings Art, Industry Together, L.P. Streitfeld, March 13, 2005

The New York Times, An Object of Practicality, From the Inside Out, Grace Gluck, April 1, 2005

Mark Lombardi: Global Networks, Richard Klein: Towards a Diagram of Mark Lombardi, essay, Independent Curators International, New York, (Judith Richards and Robert Hobbs, authors), 2005

Sculpture Magazine, Richard Klein at Caren Golden Fine Art, L.P. Streitfeld, Vol. 22, No. 7, September 2003

Art in America, Richard Klein at Caren Golden, Janet Koplos, May 2002

The New Yorker, Jil Weinstock/Richard Klein, Alexi Worth, February 11, 2002

dArt International, Visibility Framed, Dominique Nahas, Winter 2001 

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

Advisory Board, Mildred’s Lane and the Mildred’s Complex (ity), Beach Lake, PA and Narrowsburg, NY

Advisory Board, The Norwalk Art Space, Norwalk, CT

Advisory Committee, Westport MoCA, Westport, CT