Robert Schefman | The Garden
January 31 - March 7, 2026
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Press release

David Klein Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of The Garden, an exhibition featuring new and recent paintings by Robert Schefman. A reception for the artist will take place on Saturday, January 31st from 5–8 PM.  There will be an artist’s talk on Saturday February 7th at 3:00 PM.

 

When everything is in place ecologically, socially and agriculturally we can accept the absurdity of being human. - Robert Schefman, 2026

 

For his second solo exhibition with David Klein Gallery, Robert Schefman employs nature as an analogy for investigating the human experience. His previous explorations shed a light on maintaining personal histories in the age of technology while another recent series focused on the hidden world of secrets he collected from anonymous participants. Schefman’s narrative paintings are introspective, using images to convey what it means to be human in a world that is ever changing and yet remains the same.  His latest series, The Garden, continues his career spanning investigation into humankind.

 

The garden is never static. It is always in a temporary state, one where planning and constant attention can still result in a return to forest or desert. Even the well-tended garden will eventually decline over time and plants will stop blooming or bearing fruit. 

 

My Garden series is a metaphor for one’s personal struggle to create and maintain growth. Like a garden, our time is short and our bodies are more fragile than we care to admit. In response we spend a lifetime looking for meaning and some perspective on time spent in the garden. -Robert Schefman, 2026

 

Robert Schefman is a sculptor and painter. After achieving an MFA in sculpture at the University of Iowa, he moved to New York City, setting up a studio and producing large scale minimalist steel sculpture. Gradually adding painting to his studio practice, Schefman has continued to make illusionist narrative work the focus of his work. Fascinated with connecting threads in the social fabric, he uses the illusionist format to address the unchanging reality of sight.
 
Schefman’s work is in numerous private and public collections including The Broad Museum of Art, East Lansing, MI; The Frank Lloyd Wright Smith House, Bloomfield Hills, MI; The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI; The Flint Museum of Art, Flint, MI; The Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC; The Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton, FL; The 19th District Court, Dearborn; Ford Arts Center, Dearborn; Wayne State University, Detroit; The Cooley Law School, Lansing; The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA and private collections in Detroit, New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Notable exhibitions include The Outwin 2022: American Portraiture Today at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, which toured to the Grand Rapids Art Museum, The Orlando Museum of Art and the Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill, NC.  Additional exhibitions include The Detroit Institute of Art, The Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Midland Center for The Arts, The Krasl Art Center, Oakland University Art Gallery, The Salamagundi Club, Manifest Research Gallery and David Klein Gallery. 
 
A native of Detroit, Schefman earned a BFA from Michigan State University, and an MFA from the University of Iowa. Awards include the Kresge Artist Fellowship, Pollack-Krasner Foundation, The Bernard Maas Prize, ArtServe Michigan, The Arts Foundation of Michigan, and the University of Iowa. He is currently Professor Emeritus at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit and is represented by David Klein Gallery. He lives and works in Metro Detroit.