Meg Lipke: Meg Lipke
Broadway is pleased to present a solo exhibition of recent paintings by Hudson Valley-based artist Meg Lipke. Operating at the edge of acrylic and canvas’ capabilities, Lipke takes painting out for an exhilarating walk in the expanded field. Ranging in scale from intimate to monumental, these disarming works engage the bodily effect of sculpture without sacrificing their firm footing in the traditions of painting, and its symbiosis with the wall.
Taking a liberatory cue from touchstones such as the Supports/Surfaces movement, Sam Gilliam and Elizabeth Murray, Lipke’s canvas substrates are cut, sewn and tightly stuffed with polyester fill, yielding off-kilter forms that explode the bounds of painting’s persistent rectangle. These guts have the effect of humanizing the works, giving them evidence of gravity, sag and a slumping corporeal grace. Form and surface are martialed to upend the traditional relationship between painting and viewer, and the works become part stuffed-animal, upholstery, loved-object, or mattress. The canvas is used like a skin, and is treated to clusters of glyphs and bands of color that congregate in unruly configurations across curving and complex surfaces. The result is a combination of highly considered, deft craftsmanship, mingled with a casual and improvisational chromatic sense.
Playing alternately with Rorschachian symmetry and destabilizing free-form compositions, and the surprising combination of Day-Glo and earthy pigments, Lipke throws caution to the wind. In this sense, the paintings feel as earnest as they do assured—the culmination of years of research and development and the inclination to follow her instincts into unfamiliar and fruitful territory.
Meg Lipke (b. 1969) received her BA from The University of Vermont with College Honors in Painting and Women’s Studies and her MFA in Painting from Cornell University. Lipke’s work has been exhibited at Jeff Bailey Gallery, September Gallery, LMAK, Moore College of Art, TSA Philadelphia, Morgan Lehman and Gold Montclair. She has lectured extensively in universities and art programs across the country, most recently at MICA in Baltimore and The University of Buffalo in addition to Pratt Institute and Cornell University. Lipke is a 2020 recipient of the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Craft/Sculpture. Her work has been featured in many publications, including Art in America, the New York Times and the Village Voice. Lipke lives and works in New York’s Hudson Valley.
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Meg LipkePurple Blob , 2020Acrylic on muslin and faux silk with polyester fill33 x 40 x 4 inches -
Meg LipkeBig Side Guy , 2020Acrylic on canvas with polyester fill64 x 98 x 13 inches
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Meg LipkeRainbow Hanger , 2020Acrylic and beeswax on muslin with polyester fill44 x 36 x 4 inches
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Meg LipkeBlack and White Vibrations , 2020Acrylic on canvas with polyester fill132 x 104 x 15 inches
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Meg Lipke
Untitled (Teddy), 2020
acrylic on canvas with polyester fill
78 x 43 x 9 in
