Mevlana Lipp: Calypso

PUBLIC Gallery will inaugurate its new London space with an exhibition of new paintings by German artist Mevlana Lipp. Marking Lipp’s debut solo presentation in the UK, 'Calypso' will feature twelve works that expand upon the artist’s dynamic use of colour, dimensionality and shape.

Existing between painting and sculpture, Lipp’s work explores the mysteries of the natural world through hybridisations of humans and plants. In particular, this new body of work explores Lipp’s interest in primordial life forms; in which curling tendrils, pulsating bodies and luminous colours are envisaged by the artist as signifiers of human emotions and experiences. In Lipp’s words:

‘My work deals with communication –– it is about human experiences, encounters, that take place primarily on an emotional level without relying on rationality. The biomorphic plant beings in my paintings move in an archaic state of unconscious action –– they embody feelings like lust, fear, fusion, security, joy or sadness.’

Central to Lipp’s practice is his ability to create otherworldly compositions that challenge the perception of space, exemplified by his use of velvet backgrounds that appear as bottomless voids, as well as the array of textures and contrasting radiant colours of his central forms. Lipp expands the physical presence of his work by punctuating the velvet with pieces of wood so that each painting protrudes from the wall as sculpture.

'Calypso' brings these paintings, including some of the largest works Lipp has made to date, together to show the full breadth of the artist’s exploration of illusory space. Imploring a spiritual energy, the paintings depict the essence of primordial life deeply, sensually, and openly.

Mevlana Lipp (b. 1989, Cologne, Germany) lives in Leverkusen and works in Düsseldorf. His work has been exhibited internationally across the US, UK, Germany, Italy, France and Denmark. Solo exhibitions include Eden, KuK Gallery, Cologne (2019); Basic Instinct, Ak-Raum, Cologne (2019); Paradise Lost, Annarumma Gallery, Naples (2017). Select group exhibitions include Ruttkowski;68, Cologne; Collection Kunsthaus Kollitsch, Klagenfurt; Saatchi Gallery, London.