Lawrence Gipe’s life work addresses themes of power and propaganda, with the goal of analyzing symbols and codes of meaning in authoritarian visual culture. Gipe’s interests and production encompass painting, drawing, video, collaborative installations and curatorial projects.
“In the early 20th Century the romantic notion of the march of progress was depicted in powerful images of our conquest of the elements, forging a better world through science, technology and industry.”
“Lawrence Gipe is a painter with the sensibility of a historian. He searches for images that capture the tipping point between the early idealism of this period and the dark consequences of our unbridled disregard for the environment and the limitless power attained by the few.”
“Lawrence Gipe creates haunting elegiac paintings; they speak of paradise lost, of the unexpected consequence of good intentions and lament this imperfect world that we live in.”
“These paintings convey this with the poetry of melancholia illuminated through a crack from which “…the light gets in”.”
Lawrence Gipe speaks about painting as a practice in which he is seeking a balance:
“In my work as a painter I try to find a balance, to look at the world critically and to use the beauty inherent in painting as a counterpoint. It would be nice to think that an artist could be an example of how to live life in balance, it may be wishful thinking, but…”
Text Credit: Gary Brewer
Exhibitions/Bio
2018
Another Cold Winter, Lora Schlesinger Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
New and Selected Paintings, Paul Mahder Gallery. Healdsburg, CA
2017
Nobody Walks in LA, PØST Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2016
Some Men, T Moro Projects, Santa Clara, CA (Gipe+Tell)
2015
“Where We Were, and How We Got There”, Fiendish Plots, Lincoln, Nebraska
“Where We Were, and How We Got There”, Lora Schlesinger Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
“Documenting Operation Streamline”, Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine Atrium Gallery, Chicago, IL
2014
Galerie Michael Heufelder, Munich, Germany
“Documenting Operation Streamline”, Special Collections Gallery, U of A, Tucson, AZ
2013
Hespe Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Lora Schlesinger Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2012
Primary Projects, Miami, FL
2011 Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ
2010 Galerie Michael Heufelder, Munich, Germany Hespe Gallery, San Francisco, CA Lora Schlesinger Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2008 Randall Scott Gallery, Washington, DC Lora Schlesinger Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2007 Alexander Gray Associates, NY Byron Cohen Gallery, Kansas City, MO Edward Cella Art + Architecture, Santa Barbara, CA
2006 University Art Museum at Arizona State, Tempe, AZ Bentley Projects, Phoenix, AZ Ro Snell Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA Hunsaker Schlesinger Fine Art, Santa Monica, CA
2004 Atelier Richard Tullis, Santa Barbara, CA Bentley Gallery, Scottsdale, Arizona
2003 Joseph Helman Gallery, New York, NY
2002 Hunsaker Schlesinger Fine Art, Santa Monica, CA
2001 Alan Koppel Gallery, Chicago, IL Joseph Helman Gallery, New York, NY
1999 Joseph Helman Gallery, New York, NY Byron Cohen Gallery, Kansas City, MO
1998 Joseph Helman Gallery, New York, NY Fay Gold Gallery, Atlanta, GA
1996 Joseph Helman Gallery, New York, NY Kohn-Turner Gallery, Los Angeles, CA Quartet Editions, New York, NY Hunsaker Schlesinger Fine Art, Santa Monica, CA
1995 Joseph Helman Gallery, New York, NY Bentley Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ
1994 Ruth Bloom Gallery, Santa Monica, CA The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA Modernism Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1993 Kunstverein Düsseldorf, Germany Blum Helman Gallery, New York, NY Modernism Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1992 Blum Helman Warehouse New York, NY Galerie Six Friedrich, Munich, Germany Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA
1991 Shea and Bornstein Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
1990 Shea and Beker, New York, NY Bornstein Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
1989 Galerie Six Friedrich, Munich, Germany Amerika-Haus, Berlin, Germany Hartje Gallery, Frankfurt, Germany
1988 Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA
1987 Bornstein Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
1986 Bornstein Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
Awards
2018
Artist-in-Residence Award, Studio System II, Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, CA
2017
Curator-in Residence Award, ProArts Gallery, Oakland, CA
2016
Curatorial Proposal Award, Root Division, San Francisco, CA
2013
Confluencenter Faculty Innovation Grant, University of Arizona
2012
International Travel Grant, University of Arizona
2011
Artist-in-residence, Fountainhead residency, Miami, FL
2009
Artist-in-Residence, Tucson MOCA
2001-2002
GSA Commission, Murals for the Lobby of the Federal Reserve Bank Headquarters Atlanta, GA
1995
National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship, Works on Paper
1989
National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship, Painting
