Press Review from 2001 solo show on the island of Maui:
Welcome to the collective unconscious by Andy Gross
If you've lost your track of the collective unconscious, can't see the ghosts in the jungle of creativity, don't fear Lez Niepo knows the way. Niepo's series of two dozen mixed media and oil paintings currently on display at the replanted Wild Banana Gallery in the new Dragon Art Center are so good and so starlting original that they defy categorization, genre or easy description.
In the collection of complicated tribal figures and pre-technological renderings of the conscious and subconscious world, the artist basically has created a timeless, borderless civilization inhabited by archetypes, strange jungle visitors, avatars and totems.
He sets up great kind of paradoxical tension in his work in that he makes the merger of the conscious and subconscious worlds the home rather than merely a contrivance of the pieces and dares you to come in and explore.
This is particularly true in works such as "Story in black White", "Secrets of the Forest", Untitled 1," Forgotten Souls",and "Spirit House", an uncannily quirky painting where the jungle night opens and gathering is revealed.
The authenticity of the art engulfs you ,literally comes at you, all angles telling varied stories, relating mad sperm-like creatures and jungle epiphanies, visitors from outer space and outer space and our inner psyche.
The work is amazingly mature and self-contained; remarkable in its breadth.
Wild Banana Gallery owner-operators Adrianne Martinez and David Whitney are justifiably proud to be showing museum-quality paintings of an artist they courted and now love.
Yet how to really describe the art ? Set up some oxymoron like "sophisticated primitiveness" or how about ,"pre-industrial futuristic?" No, that doesn't work. Maybe themes accurate way to get across the impact of the work is to liken its organic quality to the workings of a living cell; infinitely basic , infinitely complicated. Harvesting such heady imagery is not for the faint-hearted, and Niepo, to borrow from Brian Eno, has literally spent his time in "the bush of ghosts".
The 51-year-old Niepo, both in Poland and now residing in Canada, has merged geography and creativity naturally; first, as a musician in Finland, then developing as a painter and widening his scope with treks to the remote islands of Papua New Guinea, Central America, Mexico and other venues dictated by his vagabond heart.
In terms of presentation, the brand new Wild Banana Gallery space, industrial yet inviting is great venue for the work. Martinez and Whitney have some of the large paintings hanging like tapestries, sometimes fluttering like restless spirits, which adds to the timeless quality of the show.
What toads? Just that the most daringly original among us, allow us the chance, however fleetingly to capture something universal about ourselves. Lez Niepo is part of this. Tap into it.
Welcome to the collective unconscious by Andy Gross
If you've lost your track of the collective unconscious, can't see the ghosts in the jungle of creativity, don't fear Lez Niepo knows the way. Niepo's series of two dozen mixed media and oil paintings currently on display at the replanted Wild Banana Gallery in the new Dragon Art Center are so good and so starlting original that they defy categorization, genre or easy description.
In the collection of complicated tribal figures and pre-technological renderings of the conscious and subconscious world, the artist basically has created a timeless, borderless civilization inhabited by archetypes, strange jungle visitors, avatars and totems.
He sets up great kind of paradoxical tension in his work in that he makes the merger of the conscious and subconscious worlds the home rather than merely a contrivance of the pieces and dares you to come in and explore.
This is particularly true in works such as "Story in black White", "Secrets of the Forest", Untitled 1," Forgotten Souls",and "Spirit House", an uncannily quirky painting where the jungle night opens and gathering is revealed.
The authenticity of the art engulfs you ,literally comes at you, all angles telling varied stories, relating mad sperm-like creatures and jungle epiphanies, visitors from outer space and outer space and our inner psyche.
The work is amazingly mature and self-contained; remarkable in its breadth.
Wild Banana Gallery owner-operators Adrianne Martinez and David Whitney are justifiably proud to be showing museum-quality paintings of an artist they courted and now love.
Yet how to really describe the art ? Set up some oxymoron like "sophisticated primitiveness" or how about ,"pre-industrial futuristic?" No, that doesn't work. Maybe themes accurate way to get across the impact of the work is to liken its organic quality to the workings of a living cell; infinitely basic , infinitely complicated. Harvesting such heady imagery is not for the faint-hearted, and Niepo, to borrow from Brian Eno, has literally spent his time in "the bush of ghosts".
The 51-year-old Niepo, both in Poland and now residing in Canada, has merged geography and creativity naturally; first, as a musician in Finland, then developing as a painter and widening his scope with treks to the remote islands of Papua New Guinea, Central America, Mexico and other venues dictated by his vagabond heart.
In terms of presentation, the brand new Wild Banana Gallery space, industrial yet inviting is great venue for the work. Martinez and Whitney have some of the large paintings hanging like tapestries, sometimes fluttering like restless spirits, which adds to the timeless quality of the show.
What toads? Just that the most daringly original among us, allow us the chance, however fleetingly to capture something universal about ourselves. Lez Niepo is part of this. Tap into it.
