Marc Lepson’s current practice centers on large oil paintings that isolate and abstract gestures of violence and domination. He comments:
"My work uses the language of painted portraiture, street photography, and scientific documentation to illuminate the violent underpinnings of contemporary western society. Through isolation and abstraction, painted subjects are treated as icons and become allegorical. This distance creates a space for contemplation; a push toward empathy, dialogue, thought, and action. My work puts the body, both human and animal, in the position of subject; pointing to common existential experiences of bare life. These paintings examine small moments; stripping them down, shaking them loose from their context and the visual language that has historically defined them.
Marc Lepson (b. 1970) is a painter, photographer, and printmaker. He has been part of the downtown art scene in New York City since the early 1990’s, beginning with his work as artist and Master Printer at the Lower East Side Printshop. Lepson’s work first came to national attention as part of the activist group, ad hoc artists, staging public performances (Our Grief is not a Cry for War) in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in Lower Manhattan. In the decade that followed, his strident political prints and evocative installations were shown at Miyako Yoshinaga Gallery, NY and showcased at The Brooklyn Museum. He has exhibited internationally in Vienna, Berlin, Stockholm, and Reykjavic.