INDEPENDENT ART FAIR 2026
MATT KLEBERG

MAY 14-17, 2026
Booth 501|Pier 36, Lower East Side, NYC

SOCO Gallery is pleased to present a solo booth of oil paintings by artist Matt Kleberg at Independent 2026 in booth 501. Located at Pier 36 in New York, NY, the fair will run from May 14 - 17, 2026. This will be the artist’s first presentation at Independent and the gallery’s debut at the fair.

Kleberg is a San Antonio–based artist whose practice engages formal abstraction through the lens of architectural and ornamental motifs. While his large-scale compositions initially register as bold geometric configurations, closer examination reveals a complex spatial effect achieved through layered color and form. Utilizing oilstick on canvas, Kleberg constructs pictorial spaces that evoke depth and movement while remaining fundamentally inaccessible — simultaneously inviting and withholding. 

Formally, the paintings borrow from architecture, textiles, sacred objects, the Sienese school, and “sources both high and lowbrow, from late medieval/early Renaissance altarpieces to early-twentieth-century ‘tramp art’ wood carvings" (Artforum, 2025). Though structured, their empty niches and distortions call the stability of these structures into question. 

Kleberg’s Independent presentation leans into the ornamental aspect of his work. His concentric framing nods to Albers, while the center of his compositions introduces an element of illusionistic space, making them essentially vacant frames and windows. The shaped canvases emphasize the painting as a physical object, which takes precedence over the central composition, creating a tension between objecthood and imagery that energizes the empty centers. The painting's titles make references to departure – Frame (Long Gone), Frame (Gonzo), Frame (See Ya) – pointing to a subject who has just slipped out of view, or who may never have been there at all. This emptiness also resonates with contemporary contexts of loss and disappearance in social conflict.

In the physical booth, the works will be engulfed by frames painted directly on the wall by the artist, pushing the boundary between architecture and space even further. The work will also be installed in perfect symmetry, drawing the viewer in to be surrounded by an immersive spatial experience of barrier and entry, echoing the nave and altar of a cathedral or a theatrical set.

Through this interplay of structure and void, Kleberg repositions the frame as both subject and device. The resulting works challenge conventional expectations of pictorial space, proposing instead a charged field in which absence operates as a primary material.

Matt Kleberg (American, b. 1985)

Matt Kleberg (b.1985, Kingsville TX) received his BA from the University of Virginia in 2008 and his MFA from Pratt Institute in 2015. He is represented by Pazda Butler Gallery (Houston), Berggruen Gallery (San Francisco), Sorry We’re Closed Gallery (Brussels), and SOCO Gallery (Charlotte). Recent exhibitions include Eric Firestone Gallery (NY); Berggruen Gallery (CA); Studio Cromie (Italy); Josh Pazda Hiram Butler Gallery (TX); SOCO Gallery (Charlotte) and Sorry We’re Closed (Brussels). His work has been written about in The New York Times, Artforum, The Brooklyn Rail, Vice, Maake Magazine, ArtDaily, New American Paintings, Blouin Artinfo, ArtMaze Magazine, Juxtapoz Magazine, Artillery Magazine, Glasstire and Hyperallergic and others. His work is included in public and private collections, including the Williams College Museum of Art, the University of California Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the Old Jail Art Center, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and the National Gallery of Art. Kleberg lives and works in San Antonio, TX.