Modern Eden presents the gallery debut solo exhibition by Chris Leib ‘Hierarchy’. Through an ever growing cast of wise, tolerant Bonobos and rambunctious astronaut children, Leib continues his examination of our precarious evolving pathway started long ago.
While seemingly whimsical, the paintings are laden with hidden meaning and explore themes of heroism, Western folklore, and the schism of instinct and control. Traversing through the detail in these paintings, paths of symbols and narrative open the way to intersecting thoroughfares of power and history, shaping our delicate position in the evolutionary scheme.
Chris Leib is an American artist from the San Francisco Bay Area. He began his education in Anthropology at the University of California at Berkeley. He later studied at the Academy of Art in San Francisco, after which he apprenticed with the master Italian painter Roberto Lupetti and worked for a number of years as an illustrator for McGraw-Hill Publishing. Chris Leib has exhibited his artwork across the United States, as well as in Germany, France, Denmark and Australia.
A classically trained painter, Leib has spent many years applying renaissance techniques to subject matter outside traditional boundaries. Leib‘s paintings typically feature Astronauts and Bonobos in various odd settings that are loosely inspired by the species’ (mis)interpretation of historical contexts. Despite their dark tones, his subjects are characterized by humor and an exploration of heroic imagery.
Leib’s art has been positively reviewed in Hi-Fructose Magazine, Huffington Post, Kunst Magazin, Supersonic Electronic, Village Voice, Beautiful Bizarre, HEY! Magazine, LA Weekly, Cyberzone and BloPop to name a few. Leib has twice been an Artist in Residence at the De Young Museum in San Francisco and has received competitive grants from the George Sugarman Foundation and the San Francisco Arts Commission. His work can be found in important public and private collections in the United States, Australia and Europe.
