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Lez Niepo
Lez Niepo Wild Banana gallery introduces Hawaii and the U.S. to the world of Lez Niepo, Qigong Master, explorer, musician, wind-surfer, and powerful contemporary artist.
Explosions of tribal energy with a 21 century, post-industrial edge, Lez Niepo's ambitious paintings might just be setting the pace for the next step in abstract expressionism. His raw and spirited compositions force the viewers to don their grass skirts and body paints.
Neither dream-time nor concrete, Niepo's large canvases capture a sense of village culture still rooted in it peoples' utter awareness of the earth and their community. The universality of his subjects is guttural, archetypal and divine. His images are deeply sensitive while feeling like living cave paintings created by someone adopted into a tribe to document their essences. Lez Niepo's story doesn't start in the remote islands of Papua New Guinea, but his story will take us there and beyond. Born in Poland, Lez was raised under the influence of a very artistic household.
"My teenage life, living in Poland was very busy and exciting. In my early age, I was exposed to many art forms, especially music and the strong abstract paintings in my uncle's studio.
At the age of nineteen, Lez formed his first blues band. He was playing music, taking his first steps toward abstract painting, and staying on the edge of the art scene.
In 1971, His musical pursuits led him to Finland where he jammed with the likes of blues singer/pianist, Eddie Boyde, while he painted his way into various collectors' hands. A couple of years later, he immigrated to Canada, from there he continued to travel to such destinations as the Caribbean, North Africa, Europe.
"My personal rite of passage was to throw myself into the world, to travel to far away lands and carve my own destiny as an artist and explorer. In 1981, Lez established his own Studio, "Allworks", in British Columbia. He devoted himself full time to painting. His interest in tribal art and culture led him to launch a one-man expedition in 1995 to such remote destinations as Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Fiji. He returned to South Pacific in 1997,1998 and 1999.
It is here that Lez learned from and was deeply effected by the primitive beauty in the life of tribal peoples. By immersing himself in their worlds, he learned their secret rituals and their personal stories. He gained a huge respect for their spiritual beliefs, art and traditions. His experiences make him a first-hand witness to the future that these endangered cultures face as they are re-shaped by the exploration and exploitation of their natural habitat and by the aggressive religious practices forced on them by white missionaries.
Trips to Mexico, Honduras, Central America exploring Mosquito Coast, the islands of Utila, Roatan-Guanaja, and mountain ranges of Guatemala have had their impact on Lez's artwork as well. All of these cumulative experiences have shaped him into the artist that he is today.
"As artists, we are sensitive; we observe and we create. The images in my work are not accidental. I am not just presenting a pretty picture, but rather a story, a reminder of ancestral beings and spirits, which are still a part of the beliefs of all native peoples. Some of my more playful compositions are my dedication to the wonderful native children that I have met. Other paintings represent people and tribal settlements I visited. I am not an artist who can casually produce painting after painting at the kitchen table. Each individual canvas is, itself, an adventure, a story, an experiment.
Lez's paintings begin with dense, abstract backgrounds that are complex, amorphous patterns that are full and rich in and of themselves. The simple, almost stick-figure portraits emerge out of the backgrounds with a timid curiosity that at once reveals the simplicity of his subjects as well as their innocence and wonder.
His paintings reflect traditional community life in the modern world. His style bridges the ancestral with the contemporary. It is obvious that these abstract portraits are painted by a man who as learned the language of a disappearing people. A language now nearly lost in time. Lez is a modern artist contemplating humanity outside the refined bubble of "Westernization."
"I like to work alone in isolation. My drive to paint is usually a culmination of my experiences that is then triggered by certain events or perhaps from energy I obtain from my daily routine of meditation , and Taijiqan exercises. The amount of energy I create, and the mood I'm in, dictates the final approach. I experiment with different media and concepts in the process of creation. This sense of discovery brings to me the most joy in my work."
My trip in 2005 to Bali and recent trips to Thailand in 2005,,2006,2007, will bring new art work in coming future.
"I live a life filled with mysterious coincidence and opportunities which allows me remain dedicated to my chosen path as an artist. I believe that to be a great artist is a gift or a blessing that one is born with, and that gift can only be nourished. The process of mature artistic creativity comes with age, with life experiences.
"Having a lot of incredible life experiences under my belt, I'm smiling to myself and I am content with my choices"
Serious inquiries send an to email to support these kinds of ventures.
I would like to acknowledge that the quality of the images on the Internet are poor, particularly color and textures of my paintings, due to security reasons and photo scanning techniques to keep all images a low resolution to be seen on the net.
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