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UPCOMING SHOW Up to 30 warks on sltow July 23-August 6, 2009 Arcadia Gallery 51 Greene Street NewYorh NY 10013
MalcoLM LIrpru
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About face ji::it:;
of my work anl'way,!' says Liepke. "I rvanted to abandon
' the narlative statement and look just at the 6gures. Liepke's nerv exhibition is groundbreaking for the artist. He has completed over 30 paintings-ranging in size from 4-by-4 feet to 10-by-12 inches-all of rvhich are highly cropped images of heads and faces. "I've never done strictly a head kind of show," says Liepke. "I thought that itrvould be a novel idea to explore. I started to do the large canvases and that allowed me to get into a statement that rvas a lot more por,verful. Before, I was doing mainly' 8-bv-1O-inch paintings. But the big ones combine a lot of blorving up and cropping with extreme close-ups. I'm enjoying it and further honing in on things thtrt are fun to play with-different formats with heads and frames and that sort of thing." Liepke is also finding that a rvhole universe is available once you get dori'n to tl.re finer elements of a painting. 'As the microscope focuses ar-rd gets in cioser and closer, you hnd a u4-role u,ork in there," says Liepke. "Further exploratior.r of this subiect matter rvill include men, worrren, kids, old \\,omen, and multiple heads on one canvas. It's faces and l-reads, but rvithin that frarner'vork
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"I r.vanted to do it for a long time," says Liepke. "I felt kind ofbound by the narrative tradition and had explored everything eIse. I didn't really have anything else to say and wanted to simpli$, and rvinnow down my statement to what was mv strongest strit anyr,val'." So, after thinking about rvhat attracted so many collectors to his work thror,rghout his long career, Liepke made a decision. "It was the emotionaliry of the rvork, the connection to the people who rvere painted and the faces," says Liepke. "So, I decided to simpli$'the background and
just get rid of all that other stuff behind it. My work is about the connection rvith the people I paint." Along with the background details, Liepke also wanted to lose the narrative context of the u'ork.
"I wanted to go with something I felt
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For Liepke, though, it all cornes dorvn to beins able to edit all unnecessary material out of the paintings. "Just right dorvn to tl.re bare essentials," says Liepke. "I just rvant to get the look, the gesture, the eye contact that rvill glab you. \When you zoor.n in like I'm doing, it has to be sornething that garners one's attention, like the faces, the look, head gestures. In the past, I rvas able to say things with body gestures tl.rat were porverful or interactions with a couple of figures that rvas telling."
Liepke titled this neu, exhibition Abont Face because, for him, that is rvhere these nerv paintinqs begin and end.
"You can realll, s2y a lot about someone by tl-reir attitude, their look," says Liepke. "I think rn hat is it about this persor.r that is grabbing n.re? Is it their gaze? The shape
of their hair? They,wa).their head is tilted? So, I sharpen my observation because when you are doing a (4-by-4foot) head, tl.rere realll. has to be something in tliere that is pretry intense and ri.ill grab peoplet interest." e For a lirett
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Price Range Indicator Our at-*glance Price Range Indicator sltous what you cl1il ex?ect t0 plry
for this artist\ worh.
Small 2009
$6,000-510,000
Medrum $20,000
large $40,000