Salem Artist's Collage Works to be Featured at Abbot Library

The collage works of Salem artist David Michael Lieb will be on display in the Virginia A. Garten Gallery of the Abbot Public Library in Marblehead during the month of September.

“These Kids Today” will be at the library from Thursday, Sept. 3 through Tuesday, Sept. 29 with a public reception on Saturday, Sept. 12 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

“In 1987, I started painting on small 4” x 6” hard canvases with a limited color palette,” said Lieb. “The small works were expressive and impressionistic, most notably of the Williamsburg Bank in Brooklyn, NY. Over the course of 25 years the work has transformed from the small canvases into larger pieces with layers of paper collage (recycling packing paper and tissues and newspaper clippings), with layers of acrylic paints and ink washes.”

The more recent three-dimensional, layered, shadowbox Collagescapes draw from both old and current

sources for visual information but also include newspaper text, a staple of my collage work since the late 1980s, according to Lieb. These small works present layers or snapshots into visual assemblages and CollageScapes that have been described as “wistful.” The CollageScapes often juxtapose Modern and period imagery including humans, nature and architecture. The daily human experience is explored through snapshots of reality, memory, nostalgia, faith and vision.

A large format 3-D collage incorporating a mannequin to depict “Eve” is making her second appearance in this show. It shows “Eve” as independent, resilient, spirited, intellectual, and the “mother of them all” as identified by text on the work.

Lieb is an architect, artist and educator working and living in Salem. Lieb holds a Bachelor of Architecture from the Pratt Institute-School of Architecture, Brooklyn, NY and a Master in Design Studies, in History and Theory, from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. He is a practicing architect and principal and founder of LIEBSTUDIOS in Salem, MA. His paintings and collage works have been exhibited in NYC, NW Arkansas and Massachusetts in solo and group exhibitions.

For more information on David Lieb and his work, visit: www.liebstudios.com.