At Art Whino‘s Indulge event on Saturday evening, Ted Kliman‘s life-sized paintings filled the gallery’s largest room with a haunted feeling. The artist paints not from life, but from mannequins — posing figures draped with plain cloth, and adorning the flowing shapes with tassels and Hebrew writing.

Many of the paintings, such as Bondage I and II, portray anguish and torture — the figures hang by cuffed hands, heads down, with folds of cloth subtly revealing limp human forms. Others depict an even more aggressive scene. In The Eternal Dance II, one figure stands in the background, arm raised, while a second cowers in front, and a third appears as a fading fallen victim. In contrast, the figures in other featured Kliman paintings almost appear to be dancing, with arms raised to the heavens, and bodies leaning into modern dance poses. These works, though more uplifting, contrast so starkly in mood with their neighbors that one might wish them to be in separate rooms.

In Kliman’s most interesting pieces, the figures’ body parts are not as initially obvious because of their crouching, huddled positions and lack of outstretched limbs. Agoniste II (pictured right) and Mourning Figure II demonstrate this most clearly. In all of Kliman’s main works, the hollow, draped figures are painted in whites and grays, floating against a stark black background. However, two cropped untitled paintings hidden in the back of the room, though they appear to be only studies, are measurably more intriguing due to their interesting compositions.