Malcolm Liepke American, 1953

Malcolm T. Liepke (born 1953 in Minneapolis, Minnesota) is a contemporary American painter whose practice centers on figurative representations situated within interior spaces. His paintings are distinguished by a gestural handling of paint, characterized by loose, expressive brushwork and a pronounced emphasis on surface texture. Liepke's approach demonstrates a sustained engagement with the painterly traditions of earlier masters, particularly John Singer Sargent and Diego Velázquez, whose wet-on-wet techniques, nuanced chromatic sensibilities, and compositional strategies have exerted a discernible influence on the development of his visual language. Liepke studied at the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, California, before leaving the program to relocate to New York City, where he established a career as an illustrator for major national publications, including Time, Newsweek, Forbes, and Fortune. During the 1980s, increasingly dissatisfied with the constraints imposed by commercial illustration, he made a decisive shift toward painting as his sole professional pursuit. From this period onward, his work developed into a distinctive idiom that balances technical refinement with an immediacy of expression. Liepke's works are held in the permanent collections of prominent institutions such as the Smithsonian Institution and the Brooklyn Museum. His art has also been widely exhibited and recognized by leading professional organizations, including the Pastel Society of America, the American Watercolor Society, the National Academy of Design, and the National Arts Club.