Highly Charged

THE EMOTIONAL AND LUSH FIGURATIVE PAINTINGS OF MALCOLM T. LIEPKE WILL BE ON VIEW THIS NOVEMBER AT ARCADIA CONTEMPORARY.

- Rochelle Belsito

Look at one of Malcolm T. Liepke’s figurative paintings and immediately you are transported into the scene by locking eyes with a single figure or quietly observing a crowded room. His pieces are lushly painted, which adds dimension to the flat canvas and invites people into other worlds. These worlds, as Lipeke explains, are not just his creation but they belong to the viewers who add their own interpretations.

Often Liepke is asked what he thinks about his paintings, but he believes his opinion or inspiration is no longer as important because the work has been released into the universe. “If they respond to it, they see their own story told,” he says, adding, “If you see something else that’s great and I like that. I kind of want to encourage that. I’m always interested to hear a totally different take than what I see. That’s what art does—it lets people interpret it, and it lives through the ages in away.”