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Chris Leib
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Artist Statement

I am often overwhelmed with things going on around me, with the endless static of this world. I try to ignore it. When something draws my attention it is usually because it is out of place. It has slowed down or is lost.

I wonder how it got there. Why it has stopped moving, stopped keeping pace with everything else. My imagination starts to fill in the story. That’s when I know something has really moved me and that’s when I want to paint it.

The painting methods I use are slow and an intensely absorbing process, they allow me a long interaction with my subject. Success comes when observation gives way to feeling, when the subject seems so overpowering that it tells me how to feel it, conveys its story. Then a level of empathy occurs and the work has meaning to me, it is about something for which I have real emotion.

SOLO EXHIBITS

2005          San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Artists Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2004          San Francisco Public Library, San Francisco, CA
2002          PEARceived, Giacobbe-Fritz Fine Art Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
2001          Parables, Giacobbe-Fritz Fine Art Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
2000          Downey Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITS

2008          Bedtime Stories, Mina Dresden Gallery, San Francisco, CA
                  Drawing, realist works on paper, A.Mus Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2007          Selections 2007, 111 Minna Street Gallery, San Francisco, CA, Jurors: Gabe Scott, Curator at 111 Minna Gallery,
                         Eleanor Harwood of the Eleanor Harwood Gallery, and Rene de Guzman, Visual Arts Director at the Yerba Buena
                         Center for the Arts
                   In Real Time: the Artists of Studio 212, Mina Dresden Gallery, San Francisco, CA
                  4th Annual Juried Exhibition, Art League of Northern California, Marin Museum of Contemporary Art,
                         Juror: Chester Arnold. Novato, CA
                  The Art of the Book, Donna Seager Gallery, San Rafael, CA
                  Landscapes, Garden Gallery, Half Moon Bay, CA
2006          Delicious, Donna Seager Gallery, San Rafael, CA
                  Landscapes, Garden Gallery, Half Moon Bay, CA
                  Bay Area Annual 2006, Sanchez Art Center, Juror: Karen Kienzle, Curator, de Saisset Museum, Santa Clara University, CA
                  Chronicle Boxes, DeYoung Museum, San Francisco, CA
                  Creative Justice, Kendrick Hall, USF School of Law, CA
                  The Art of the Book, Donna Seager Gallery, San Rafael, CA
2005          Urban Landscape, Garden Gallery, Half Moon Bay, CA
                  Novis Disk Corp, PA
                  Eclectic, Garden Gallery, Half Moon Bay, CA
                  Galerie Saphir, Paris/Dinard, France
                  Art for Aids, Sotherby's West, San Francisco, CA
2004          After Dark, two-person show, Pringle Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
                  Eclectic, Garden Gallery, Half Moon Bay, CA
                   Art for Aids, Sotherby's West, San Francisco, CA
2003          San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Artists Gallery, San Francisco, CA
                  Winfield Gallery, Carmel, CA
                  Garden Gallery, Half Moon Bay, CA
                   Art for Aids, Sotherby's West, San Francisco, CA
                  Groundswell Mural Project Auction, White Columns Gallery, NY, NY
                  Gold Frame Re-Mix, curated by Oliver Rosenthal, San Francisco, CA
2002           de corps dans tous ses etats, Galerie Saphir, Dinard, France
                  Winfield Gallery, Carmel, CA
                  Eclectic, Garden Gallery, Half Moon Bay, CA
                  Giacobbe-Fritz Fine Art Gallery, Santa Fe NM
2001          New Dialogues, Michael Martin Galleries, San Francisco, CA.
                  Figures and Artifacts, Garden Gallery, Half Moon Bay, CA
                  Giacobbe-Fritz Fine Art Gallery, Santa Fe NM
                  Fresh, Gallery 22, San Francisco, CA
                  Introduction, Hat Factory Artist’s Salon, Gallery 22, San Francisco, CA
2000          Sustainability, San Francisco Art Center Project, San Francisco, CA
                  Downey Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

AWARDS AND OTHER ACTIVITIES

2008         Artist Residency, Kimball Gallery, De Young Museum, San Francisco, CA
2007          San Francisco Arts Commission, Individual Artist's Grant for "Relative
                  Connections," a collaborative work with artist, Laura Parker
                  George Sugarman Foundation Inc. Grant for individual artists, 2007
2006          Artist demonstration, DeYoung Museum, San Francisco, CA
2003          Exhibit and demonstration in conjunction with the exhibit, Leonardo and the Splendor of Poland,
                         Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, CA
2001          Co-Founder and Legal Liaison, The Hat Factory Artist's Collective.
2000          Artist in Residence, DeYoung Museum, San Francisco, CA

PUBLICATIONS

Artist and Collector – A Spark of Recognition, by Priscilla Otani, article on collecting, Artspan Guide, September 2007
Marin Independent Journal, Lifestyles Section, Art of the Here and Now, article on the new Marin MOCA, September 2007
Artbusiness.com, In Real Time, group show, September 2007
Artwork featured in the film Limbo Lounge (post production), 2006
Interview, Mission Arts Monthly, 2005
Artbusiness.com, SFMOMA Artists Gallery show, 2005
Review, Philadelphia Inquirer, June 2004
Philly.com (Philadelphia Daily News), June 2004
Marin Independent Journal, June 2004
Selected Artists, San Rafael Street Painting Festival, 2004
Documentary, Chris Leib: Mystery and Metaphor. Producer/Director: Steve Patapof. Music: Tiffany Sevilla. 2002
Valeurs Actuelles, article about Dinard show in French economic magazine, 2002.
Chris Leib mixes mystery with metaphor: A still-life artist who paints in 'Parables", by Robert Nott; Pasatiempo, the Weekly Arts Magazine of New Mexico, The New Mexican. Sept. 28 - Oct. 4, 2001
The Energy of Texture, by Chris Leib; The Artist's Magazine, Aug. 2001
Wingspread Gallery News, KHFM 95.5 FM, Albuquerque, NM, Sept. 2001
Boom and Bust:, a Tale of Two Cities, San Jose Mercury News, 2000
Artist's in the Mission, New Mission News, 2000

EDUCATION

Studio apprentice of Prof. Roberto Lupetti, '94-'95.
Academy of Art College, San Francisco, '93, ‘96. Fine Art.
San Francisco State University, '92. Interactive computer art, conceptual design, painting with Robert Bechtle.
Bachelor of Arts, Anthropology, honors, University of California at Berkeley, '89.