Rate My Professor Jeana Klein

Jeana Eve Klein is Professor of Fibers in the Studio Art program in the Department of Art at Appalachian State University. Her wide-ranging studio practice as a textiles generalist and conceptual artist 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. She employs varied processes and materials from project to project, including traditional textile techniques such as weaving and knitting, digital media, installation, and social practice. Current projects include "Cruise Pix (Toss)," reimagining the photographic documentation of her grandparents’ 1990s travels as bead-woven, larger-than-life pixelized images for public display, transforming personal history into a physical analogue of social media sharing. "Imaginary Weaving" contrasts the slow labor and knowledge-building of weaving non-traditional materials with artificial intelligence-generated versions, highlighting the disconnect between representation and reality through a digital lens.

Klein holds an undergraduate degree from North Carolina State University and an MFA from Arizona State University. Her exhibitions encompass solo shows at OZ Arts in Nashville and ArtSpace in Raleigh, and group exhibitions at the Untitled Space in New York City, Museum of Design in Atlanta, PULSE Contemporary Art Fair in Miami Beach, Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, The Clay Studio, Fitton Center for the Arts, and Asheville Art Museum. She received the North Carolina Arts Council Individual Craft Artist Fellowship, the Guest Juror Award from Surface Design magazine's annual International Exhibition in Print—where her work featured on the cover and in a three-page spread, selected from over 700 applicants—the 2022 Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching at Appalachian State University, and the 2009 Windgate Artist Fellowship. Klein serves as Assistant Chair of the Department of Art, contributing to curriculum and teaching innovative studio courses.