Broken Chalice with Flute, 2014
Glass, wood, paint, and adhesive
Lent by Claire Oliver Gallery, New York, New York
Although it is one of the most recently completed works in the exhibition,
Broken Chalice with Flute is most representative of the work Lipman does
on a continual basis: forming laid table still lifes in dazzling clear glass.
Here, the artist accentuates her ability to create thin, flat panes of glass and
then push them to the point of breakage. One of the primary elements in
the composition, the chalice, boldly hints of the danger posed by glass
shards and serves as a metaphor for mortality, making the composition in
essence a vanitas still life, a commentary on the transience of life and
earthly materials. Centered on the table, the other main component—an
oversized champagne flute—references wealth and pleasure. By
combining these two pieces with tipped bowls overflowing with fruits and
flowers, a box filled with cigars, melted-down candlesticks, and other
remnants of a raucous banquet, Lipman’s art is a reflection of
overindulgence and gluttony.
Laid Table with Fish, 2011
Glass, wood, paint, and adhesive
Lent by Claire Oliver Gallery, New York, New York
A laid table with dead game often appeared in seventeenth-century Dutch
still lifes. Lipman tackled the subject by giving it a contemporary twist. The
idea of using fish appealed to Lipman on many levels as they embody
many symbolic references. For example, prior to Christianity, the fish
symbolized aspects of womanhood including the sea goddess Atargatis,
the Greek goddess Aphrodite, and the womb. Now, the fish is a symbol
closely aligned with Christianity, referencing Jesus’ act of multiplying two
fish to feed thousands. In Laid Table with Fish, Lipman plays on this
interpretation to allude to the dominant religion in our culture. Additionally,
her plentiful mound of reflective, luminescent glass fish piled together as if
on display at a fish market suggests both abundance and waste.
Still Life with Kudzu, 2010
Glass, wood, paint, and adhesive
Collection of Bill and Christy Gautreaux, Kansas City, Missouri
With Still Life with Kudzu, Lipman created a sculpture that features a
noxious weed in a domestic setting. While plants are common pictorial
elements, they are usually depicted as accessories rather than a dominant
feature. In this case, the artist enmeshes nature within the interior setting
by creating a glass wallpaper of kudzu. Its leaves creep off of the wall onto
the table smothering everything in their path: overtaking food, climbing over
candles and vessels, and knocking over containers that spill their contents
toward the floor. The artist highlights the destructive potential inherent in
nature and simultaneously reminds us that despite all efforts to keep it at
bay, nature remains beyond our control.
Pitcher with Vine, 2011
Glass, wood, paint, and adhesive
Lent by Claire Oliver Gallery, New York, New York
Another sculptural installation from a five-part series of works that
reference the invasive qualities of kudzu is Pitcher with Vine. In it, Lipman
plays with the duality of this woody perennial’s beauty and destructiveness.
She draped the glass vines across her table top, winding them around
candles, chalices, goblets, wine, and fruit, until, like a powerful wave
cresting, the tendrils come together and rush over the side of the table. At
the back of the table, the sinuous vine appears both beautiful and benign;
from the front, its aggressive and devastating powers become readily
apparent. Kudzu symbolizes both excess, and overindulgence.
Whatnot I, 2010
Glass, wood, paint, and adhesive
Lent by Claire Oliver Gallery, New York, New York
Signifying Lipman’s shift into creating sculptures as a form of portraiture,
Whatnot I and Whatnot II are representations of the human body. The four
tiers of the enlarged French-inspired étagères, or nineteenth-century
American “what nots,” in the artist’s mind align with different body parts:
head, heart, body, and feet. Covering each shelf are glass replicas of items
that Lipman found, received as gifts, or obtained in trade from other
artists—items she lives with every day. Thus, the works present a vanitas
image of herself and her family at a specific moment in time. She considers the pair
to be almost like sisters, and believes that, in many ways, they relate to her twin daughters.
Created from opaque black glass, the Whatnots also evoke the idea of the
silhouette—another form of portraiture distilled into black shapes—a
practice that gained popularity during the nineteenth century and fascinates
the artist today. Through the conglomeration of knickknacks, Lipman
explores how people surround themselves with objects that are both
souvenirs of events and memories, as well as items that reflect who each
of us aspires to be.
Whatnot II, 2010
Glass, wood, paint, and adhesive
Lent by Claire Oliver Gallery, New York, New York
One and Others, 2011
Glass, wood, paint, and adhesive
Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida. Purchase, R. H. Norton Trust
through the exchange of other Trust properties, 2012.1
Lipman created One and Others as a composite portrait that uses objects
to depict three very different identities. First, it is an oblique portrayal of the
artist because she sized the coffin-like base to her own body. Second,
because the Norton Museum of Art, for which she created the piece, rests
above the grave of Richard Hone, a well-to-do pineapple grower who was
murdered in 1902, she chose to create glass versions of scientific
illustrations of the pineapple plant along with life-size versions of its fruit,
flowers, and leaves. Third, Lipman referenced the Museum by recreating
still life objects she saw in various paintings from its collection, including
dead birds, a ball and chain that confined a pet monkey, and floral funerary
wreaths. Three gazing balls anchor the composition and extend Lipman’s
idea of portraiture even further as the artist believes they function as
surrogates for humans. The all-encompassing eye of each gazing ball both
includes the viewer but also reflects back what it “sees.”
Hourglass with Shells and Coral, 2010
Lambda print face mounted to Plexiglas
Lent by Claire Oliver Gallery, New York, New York
Hourglass with Shells and Coral is an unusual format for Lipman, as for this
photographic print she placed opaque black glass objects against a black
background in order to play with the viewers’ perceptions. In what is
otherwise a classical still life in composition, each element emerges from
an inky void. In some parts of the image, it is hard to discern where each
object begins and ends, yet the highlights offer reflections of the artist’s
studio and align this work with other of Lipman’s portraits. The combination
of glass goblets and small urns amidst glass versions of rare treasures
from the sea and an hourglass allude to the transitoriness of the good life.
Still Life with Plate of Cheese and Beer Stein, 2011
Lambda print face mounted to Plexiglas
Lent by Claire Oliver Gallery, New York, New York
Lipman floated her clear objects against a black background in the
photograph Still Life with Plate of Cheese and Beer Stein. The stark quality
of the image seductively highlights the objects, which are deliciously
delightful representions of consumption and gluttony. This work, like many
of Lipman’s other images, relies on edibles as a method of connecting past
and present. Food became a commodity during the early seventeenth
century, as is abundantly apparent in the Baroque paintings she so often
references. Today, food has become a source of pleasure for many, while
simultaneously serving as a vehicle for various events and entertainment.
Pocket Watch, Books, Skull, and Candles, 2011
Lambda print face mounted to Plexiglas
Lent by Claire Oliver Gallery, New York, New York
Pocketwatch, Books, Skull, and Candles offers a narrative meditation on
death, a memento mori. The skull, burnt candles, fading bouquet, and
watch allude to the passage of time and inevitable decay. The decanters
and wine goblets emphasize decadence and waste. Furthermore, the light
that reflects off of these pristine glass objects functions as a subtle halo,
signifying an otherworldliness that suggests our time on Earth is fleeting.
Lipman’s addition of a stack of books—symbolizing knowledge, the highest
form of human understanding through scholarship—drives home her point
that we need awareness in order to acknowledge our shortcomings and to
strive for betterment during our lifetimes.
Sticks, Pitcher, and Chain, 2011
Lambda print face mounted to Plexiglas
Lent by Claire Oliver Gallery, New York, New York
One of the most of minimal of Lipman’s compositions, the photograph
Sticks, Pitcher, and Chain, relates to her symbolic sculptural portraits. The
glass pitcher stands as regally as a person in the center of the frame. In
combination with the flanking bowl of decaying fruit and glasses snapped
from their stems, the arrangement suggests the precariousness of life.
Wrapped around the broken champagne flute, a chain represents that
which temporarily binds us to our earthly existence: our bodies and
possessions.
Bottles and Flora, 2015
Lambda print face mounted to Plexiglas
Lent by Claire Oliver Gallery, New York, New York
Lipman enjoys the exercise of composing, of moving around different glass objects to create narrative images. Her photographs of clear glass items against a light background are closely affiliated to her three-dimensional installations and are essentially a recoding of the ideas she has expressed in those sculptures. Bottles and Flora exemplifies this. In many three-dimensional works beginning in 2010, Lipman combined man-made objects with nature. Here she interspersed plants and leaves between a candle, a wine glass, and two bottles. By depicting this foliage as still fresh, caught in the moment before withering and fading away, the artist created a photograph that functions as a subtle memento mori.
Chalice and Tanalian Mountain II, Lake Clark, AK, 2014
C-print mounted to aluminum with gloss laminate
Lent by Claire Oliver Gallery, New York, New York
A singular glass vessel stands in the water in front of majestic mountains in
the bright and airy Chalice and Tanalian Mountain II, Lake Clark, AK. The
shifting tones of blue and the symmetry of the image convey harmony.
The translucency of the vessel provides a balance for the monumentality of the background. In this particular piece, Lipman arranged the composition to suggest that humans strive to coexist with nature.
Gazing Ball in Burnt Forest, Lake Clark, AK, 2014
C-print mounted to aluminum with gloss laminate
Lent by Claire Oliver Gallery, New York, New York
In Gazing Ball in Burnt Forest, Lake Clark, AK, a gazing ball and glass skull
sit directly upon the forest floor and glitter amongst the dark scrub and
bright green fern fronds in a magical space. They are a construct of both
the artificial and the natural and an allusion to the past, both recent and
ancient. This particular forest burned in 2013, and the horsetail ferns that
Lipman photographed were the first to regrow. Their resiliency echoes that of
Paleolithic plants, including a form of this fern from 200 million years ago, that
continue to thrive today. Lipman’s composition draws parallels between the present
and the ancient geological time, an approach known as “Big History.”
Gazing Ball with Lemon and Fly, Lake Clark, AK, 2014
C-print mounted to aluminum with gloss laminate
Lent by Claire Oliver Gallery, New York, New York
With Gazing Ball with Lemon and Fly, Lake Clark, AK, Lipman tricks the
eye. By narrowing our viewpoint to the gazing ball, she forces us to
observe the reflected landscape in a mediated way: it is filtered through
both the gazing ball and the lens of her camera. The landscape becomes a
liminal space that is familiar but unknown. In this photograph, Lipman
incorporates several known symbols from seventeenth-century Dutch still-life paintings.
First, at the base of the gazing ball rests a lemon, which
represents the idea of exploration, an emblem Lipman uses to emphasize
her concern with the impact of humans on the wilderness. Second, sitting
on the left edge of the gazing ball is a fly, signifying a fleeting moment
captured in time.
Glass, wood, paint, and adhesive
Lent by Claire Oliver Gallery, New York, New York
Although it is one of the most recently completed works in the exhibition,
Broken Chalice with Flute is most representative of the work Lipman does
on a continual basis: forming laid table still lifes in dazzling clear glass.
Here, the artist accentuates her ability to create thin, flat panes of glass and
then push them to the point of breakage. One of the primary elements in
the composition, the chalice, boldly hints of the danger posed by glass
shards and serves as a metaphor for mortality, making the composition in
essence a vanitas still life, a commentary on the transience of life and
earthly materials. Centered on the table, the other main component—an
oversized champagne flute—references wealth and pleasure. By
combining these two pieces with tipped bowls overflowing with fruits and
flowers, a box filled with cigars, melted-down candlesticks, and other
remnants of a raucous banquet, Lipman’s art is a reflection of
overindulgence and gluttony.
Laid Table with Fish, 2011
Glass, wood, paint, and adhesive
Lent by Claire Oliver Gallery, New York, New York
A laid table with dead game often appeared in seventeenth-century Dutch
still lifes. Lipman tackled the subject by giving it a contemporary twist. The
idea of using fish appealed to Lipman on many levels as they embody
many symbolic references. For example, prior to Christianity, the fish
symbolized aspects of womanhood including the sea goddess Atargatis,
the Greek goddess Aphrodite, and the womb. Now, the fish is a symbol
closely aligned with Christianity, referencing Jesus’ act of multiplying two
fish to feed thousands. In Laid Table with Fish, Lipman plays on this
interpretation to allude to the dominant religion in our culture. Additionally,
her plentiful mound of reflective, luminescent glass fish piled together as if
on display at a fish market suggests both abundance and waste.
Still Life with Kudzu, 2010
Glass, wood, paint, and adhesive
Collection of Bill and Christy Gautreaux, Kansas City, Missouri
With Still Life with Kudzu, Lipman created a sculpture that features a
noxious weed in a domestic setting. While plants are common pictorial
elements, they are usually depicted as accessories rather than a dominant
feature. In this case, the artist enmeshes nature within the interior setting
by creating a glass wallpaper of kudzu. Its leaves creep off of the wall onto
the table smothering everything in their path: overtaking food, climbing over
candles and vessels, and knocking over containers that spill their contents
toward the floor. The artist highlights the destructive potential inherent in
nature and simultaneously reminds us that despite all efforts to keep it at
bay, nature remains beyond our control.
Pitcher with Vine, 2011
Glass, wood, paint, and adhesive
Lent by Claire Oliver Gallery, New York, New York
Another sculptural installation from a five-part series of works that
reference the invasive qualities of kudzu is Pitcher with Vine. In it, Lipman
plays with the duality of this woody perennial’s beauty and destructiveness.
She draped the glass vines across her table top, winding them around
candles, chalices, goblets, wine, and fruit, until, like a powerful wave
cresting, the tendrils come together and rush over the side of the table. At
the back of the table, the sinuous vine appears both beautiful and benign;
from the front, its aggressive and devastating powers become readily
apparent. Kudzu symbolizes both excess, and overindulgence.
Whatnot I, 2010
Glass, wood, paint, and adhesive
Lent by Claire Oliver Gallery, New York, New York
Signifying Lipman’s shift into creating sculptures as a form of portraiture,
Whatnot I and Whatnot II are representations of the human body. The four
tiers of the enlarged French-inspired étagères, or nineteenth-century
American “what nots,” in the artist’s mind align with different body parts:
head, heart, body, and feet. Covering each shelf are glass replicas of items
that Lipman found, received as gifts, or obtained in trade from other
artists—items she lives with every day. Thus, the works present a vanitas
image of herself and her family at a specific moment in time. She considers the pair
to be almost like sisters, and believes that, in many ways, they relate to her twin daughters.
Created from opaque black glass, the Whatnots also evoke the idea of the
silhouette—another form of portraiture distilled into black shapes—a
practice that gained popularity during the nineteenth century and fascinates
the artist today. Through the conglomeration of knickknacks, Lipman
explores how people surround themselves with objects that are both
souvenirs of events and memories, as well as items that reflect who each
of us aspires to be.
Whatnot II, 2010
Glass, wood, paint, and adhesive
Lent by Claire Oliver Gallery, New York, New York
One and Others, 2011
Glass, wood, paint, and adhesive
Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida. Purchase, R. H. Norton Trust
through the exchange of other Trust properties, 2012.1
Lipman created One and Others as a composite portrait that uses objects
to depict three very different identities. First, it is an oblique portrayal of the
artist because she sized the coffin-like base to her own body. Second,
because the Norton Museum of Art, for which she created the piece, rests
above the grave of Richard Hone, a well-to-do pineapple grower who was
murdered in 1902, she chose to create glass versions of scientific
illustrations of the pineapple plant along with life-size versions of its fruit,
flowers, and leaves. Third, Lipman referenced the Museum by recreating
still life objects she saw in various paintings from its collection, including
dead birds, a ball and chain that confined a pet monkey, and floral funerary
wreaths. Three gazing balls anchor the composition and extend Lipman’s
idea of portraiture even further as the artist believes they function as
surrogates for humans. The all-encompassing eye of each gazing ball both
includes the viewer but also reflects back what it “sees.”
Hourglass with Shells and Coral, 2010
Lambda print face mounted to Plexiglas
Lent by Claire Oliver Gallery, New York, New York
Hourglass with Shells and Coral is an unusual format for Lipman, as for this
photographic print she placed opaque black glass objects against a black
background in order to play with the viewers’ perceptions. In what is
otherwise a classical still life in composition, each element emerges from
an inky void. In some parts of the image, it is hard to discern where each
object begins and ends, yet the highlights offer reflections of the artist’s
studio and align this work with other of Lipman’s portraits. The combination
of glass goblets and small urns amidst glass versions of rare treasures
from the sea and an hourglass allude to the transitoriness of the good life.
Still Life with Plate of Cheese and Beer Stein, 2011
Lambda print face mounted to Plexiglas
Lent by Claire Oliver Gallery, New York, New York
Lipman floated her clear objects against a black background in the
photograph Still Life with Plate of Cheese and Beer Stein. The stark quality
of the image seductively highlights the objects, which are deliciously
delightful representions of consumption and gluttony. This work, like many
of Lipman’s other images, relies on edibles as a method of connecting past
and present. Food became a commodity during the early seventeenth
century, as is abundantly apparent in the Baroque paintings she so often
references. Today, food has become a source of pleasure for many, while
simultaneously serving as a vehicle for various events and entertainment.
Pocket Watch, Books, Skull, and Candles, 2011
Lambda print face mounted to Plexiglas
Lent by Claire Oliver Gallery, New York, New York
Pocketwatch, Books, Skull, and Candles offers a narrative meditation on
death, a memento mori. The skull, burnt candles, fading bouquet, and
watch allude to the passage of time and inevitable decay. The decanters
and wine goblets emphasize decadence and waste. Furthermore, the light
that reflects off of these pristine glass objects functions as a subtle halo,
signifying an otherworldliness that suggests our time on Earth is fleeting.
Lipman’s addition of a stack of books—symbolizing knowledge, the highest
form of human understanding through scholarship—drives home her point
that we need awareness in order to acknowledge our shortcomings and to
strive for betterment during our lifetimes.
Sticks, Pitcher, and Chain, 2011
Lambda print face mounted to Plexiglas
Lent by Claire Oliver Gallery, New York, New York
One of the most of minimal of Lipman’s compositions, the photograph
Sticks, Pitcher, and Chain, relates to her symbolic sculptural portraits. The
glass pitcher stands as regally as a person in the center of the frame. In
combination with the flanking bowl of decaying fruit and glasses snapped
from their stems, the arrangement suggests the precariousness of life.
Wrapped around the broken champagne flute, a chain represents that
which temporarily binds us to our earthly existence: our bodies and
possessions.
Bottles and Flora, 2015
Lambda print face mounted to Plexiglas
Lent by Claire Oliver Gallery, New York, New York
Lipman enjoys the exercise of composing, of moving around different glass objects to create narrative images. Her photographs of clear glass items against a light background are closely affiliated to her three-dimensional installations and are essentially a recoding of the ideas she has expressed in those sculptures. Bottles and Flora exemplifies this. In many three-dimensional works beginning in 2010, Lipman combined man-made objects with nature. Here she interspersed plants and leaves between a candle, a wine glass, and two bottles. By depicting this foliage as still fresh, caught in the moment before withering and fading away, the artist created a photograph that functions as a subtle memento mori.
Chalice and Tanalian Mountain II, Lake Clark, AK, 2014
C-print mounted to aluminum with gloss laminate
Lent by Claire Oliver Gallery, New York, New York
A singular glass vessel stands in the water in front of majestic mountains in
the bright and airy Chalice and Tanalian Mountain II, Lake Clark, AK. The
shifting tones of blue and the symmetry of the image convey harmony.
The translucency of the vessel provides a balance for the monumentality of the background. In this particular piece, Lipman arranged the composition to suggest that humans strive to coexist with nature.
Gazing Ball in Burnt Forest, Lake Clark, AK, 2014
C-print mounted to aluminum with gloss laminate
Lent by Claire Oliver Gallery, New York, New York
In Gazing Ball in Burnt Forest, Lake Clark, AK, a gazing ball and glass skull
sit directly upon the forest floor and glitter amongst the dark scrub and
bright green fern fronds in a magical space. They are a construct of both
the artificial and the natural and an allusion to the past, both recent and
ancient. This particular forest burned in 2013, and the horsetail ferns that
Lipman photographed were the first to regrow. Their resiliency echoes that of
Paleolithic plants, including a form of this fern from 200 million years ago, that
continue to thrive today. Lipman’s composition draws parallels between the present
and the ancient geological time, an approach known as “Big History.”
Gazing Ball with Lemon and Fly, Lake Clark, AK, 2014
C-print mounted to aluminum with gloss laminate
Lent by Claire Oliver Gallery, New York, New York
With Gazing Ball with Lemon and Fly, Lake Clark, AK, Lipman tricks the
eye. By narrowing our viewpoint to the gazing ball, she forces us to
observe the reflected landscape in a mediated way: it is filtered through
both the gazing ball and the lens of her camera. The landscape becomes a
liminal space that is familiar but unknown. In this photograph, Lipman
incorporates several known symbols from seventeenth-century Dutch still-life paintings.
First, at the base of the gazing ball rests a lemon, which
represents the idea of exploration, an emblem Lipman uses to emphasize
her concern with the impact of humans on the wilderness. Second, sitting
on the left edge of the gazing ball is a fly, signifying a fleeting moment
captured in time.
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