Telluride Gallery of Fine Art: Liepke’s new oils for Art Walk

04 Mar Telluride Gallery of Fine Art: Liepke’s new oils for Art Walk

He’s at it again and that’s a good thing. And just in time for Telluride Arts First Thursday Art Walk, a celebration of creativity in downtown Telluride, when all sorts of venues stay open late until 8 p.m. Malcolm Liepke’s new body of work goes on display Thursday, March 6, 5 – 8 p.m. at the Telluride Gallery of Fine Art, 130 East Colorado Avenue.

Gilded Girl 11 x 15

If you missed the artist’s last two shows, trust me, they were doozies: wall-to-wall pulchritude and sensuality confronting us with looks that would melt steel, rendered by a painter who is an unapologetic realist.

For his encore, Malcolm Liepke brings us one more variation on the theme of his favorite and signature narrative – a celebration of flesh, features, fabric that conspire to reveal the inner life of his subjects. Once again he delivers his “harem” unscathed and on a silver platter with the same Caravaggian frankness and intensity and the same rich textures that inhabited the canvasses we were treated to years past. And those beautiful faces, features working collectively as suggestions that personalities are liable to change in the blink of an eye. Look away, then look back: who knows who you will meet this time in the guise of a beautiful, mysterious stranger.

Wrapped in Sage 22 x 30

Regardless of the spin Liepke puts on his work – haute fashion this time around, with several images looking like Vogue covers from days gone by – he remains an unrivaled recorder of feminine beauty: luscious and uncensored. His bravura brushwork is as loose and juicy as his idol Velasquez, and an extension of his no-nonsense Midwestern roots. (He was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota.) This latest body of work brings excitement to the scrutiny of light and shade on the bodice of a dress, the flash

3 Brimmed Hat 10 x 14

of an earring or an eye, ruby red lips, and smooth, lustrous skin, all modeled to the point of overt seduction.

Liepke is known to quote a legend scrawled on the back of a Rembrandt: “I yield to no one.” But we, the spectators in the thrall of Liepke’s sirens yield once again to the artist’s smoking brush.

To learn more about the life of the artist and his influences, follow this link to our original post and interview from Liepke’s first show in town.

For more about Art Walk, maps are available at participating venues and at the Telluride Arts offices located in the Stronghouse Studios + Gallery at 283 South Fir Street or call 970.728.3930.

For a preview of Liepke’s show, watch Clint Viebrock’s video.