Exhibition Date: May – June 2026
Location:
Cerbera Gallery
2011 Baltimore Ave, Kansas City, MO 64108
Opening Reception: THU, April 30, 5 – 8 PM
First Friday Reception: FRI, May 1, 5 – 9 PM
Phone: +1 – 844-202‑9303
E‑Mail: info@cerberagallery.com
In When The Sun Saw The Sky, Annieo Klaas presents a new series of oil paintings that explore the poetic interplay of light, perception, and interior space. Inspired by the simple yet transformative moment when sunlight filters through window blinds, casting rhythmic bands of gold across her studio, Klaas captures a fleeting visual phenomenon — one in which light and subject begin to echo one another. As these rays fall onto her painted skies, a subtle loop emerges, as if the sky were looking back at itself.
Klaas’s work operates within the quiet pulse of magical realism, where the familiar becomes quietly enchanted. Her recurring motif of a sunlit window, often softened by gauzy curtains, anchors the viewer in a domestic setting, yet the scenes shimmer with an otherworldly presence. Radiant hues bleed gently across surfaces, while layers of light, shadow, and foliage create a sense of depth that feels both intimate and elusive. Rather than departing from reality, Klaas heightens it — revealing a world that vibrates just beyond the logical.
Her treatment of light is not merely optical, but emotional. It is rendered with a dreamlike clarity that feels at once tender and uncanny, inviting a slower, more contemplative way of seeing. These compositions function as quiet thresholds — spaces where interior and exterior, presence and imagination, begin to blur. In capturing these ephemeral moments, Klaas offers viewers an opportunity to pause within that liminal space, where light becomes both subject and sensation, and the ordinary reveals its latent wonder.
Annieo Klaas grew up in Dakar, Senegal and is based in Birmingham, Alabama. She holds a PharmD from Auburn University, a BFA from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, Washington, and works as a Nuclear Pharmacist for Siemens Healthineers.
Klaas’s work has been exhibited at the Mobile Museum of Art (AL), the LaGrange Art Museum (GA), the Alabama Contemporary Art Center (AL), Field Projects Gallery (NY), Warnes Contemporary (NY), Sophiella Gallery (AL), K Space Contemporary (TX), and the Intersect Arts Center (St Louis, MO). Her work has been featured in several publications, including New American Paintings (South Issue 178) and Booooooom’s Tomorrow’s Talent.
Klaas’s paintings operate within the quiet pulse of magical realism, where the ordinary becomes enchanted. Her most recent motif of a sunlit window softened by gauzy curtains grounds the viewer in a familiar domestic setting, yet the scenes shimmer with an otherworldly quality. Radiant colors bleed across surfaces, and the layering of light, shadow, and foliage suggests a reality subtly heightened, vibrating just beyond the logical. Like the literary tradition of magical realism, Klaas doesn’t abandon the real; instead, she infuses it with wonder, illuminating the poetic strangeness that lives in plain sight. Her treatment of light is less about optics than emotion, rendered with a dreamlike clarity that feels both tender and uncanny. More than just windows, these are thresholds, inviting the viewer to dwell in the thin space between presence and imagination.
