Helge Leiberg

Couple Times

09/11/25—18/01/26

 

Helge Leiberg has found his central theme in the human figure. He scrutinizes, observes, and marvels at the smallest social unit – the couple. He explores togetherness, the relationship between the sexes, registering attraction and repulsion, closeness and distance. Hence the title of this exhibition: Couple Times. But Leiberg leaves little room for romantic idealization. The complex relationships of his subjects reflect the fullness of life with all its insatiable, positive stimuli, but also its tension-filled, negative conflicts. His pieces are visual contributions to the study of human behavior.

 

His art world is cheeky, cheerful, frivolous, and furious. The limbs of the posing women and contorting couples become entangled. In the end, it is often no longer clear whether it is lovemaking or murderous fun. The silhouettes are stylized into anonymous types. Leiberg deliberately avoids concealing clothing. He reduces his figures to shadowy stick figures. He applies the brush-bristle-wide bodies directly to the paper with great ease, without preliminary sketches. Ink splashes explode across the canvas. His cast of figures often floats seemingly weightless against a monochrome background. Detached from the constraints of pictorial space and the constraints of time, the figures celebrate their autonomy, independent of the picture plane.

 

At times, the wildness of the painterly gesture corresponds to the exuberant rhythm of music. His array of figures often plays painted musical instruments, which synesthetically suggest a sound to the viewer. These are frequently jazz musicians. He is also captivated by dance, especially expressionist dance. Leiberg reveals himself as an imaginative dance master, dragging his figures onto the dance floor to an imaginary staccato rhythm. Stylistically, he feels an affinity with Alberto Giacometti, A. R. Penck, and Wolfgang Smy. Giacometti’s gaunt, emaciated, elongated figures likely served as a model for his formal experiments with fleshless, elongated silhouettes.

 

This exhibition showcases works from the 1980s to the present day. However, Leiberg’s oeuvre is far more extensive, encompassing painting, drawing, printmaking, artist’s books, experimental film, performance, and sculptures in terracotta and bronze. The exhibition features sections dedicated to various themes: creatures, musical impulses, inner worlds, extemporizing individual figures, intimate couples, and aggressively tense relationships.

 

With his works, Helge Leiberg impressively enlivens, deepens, and enriches our understanding of couple dynamics.