Dave Lefner
Artist, Printmaker
Los Angeles, CA
@lefner_editions
“All the work has been printed on the same Conrad Press, which I bought around 2002. I purposely wanted a hand-cranked press, so I could feel exactly where the block of linoleum is as it moves through the press. Buying that beautiful press absolutely changed my life.”
– Dave Lefner,
Artist/ Printmaker
Bio
As a native-born Angeleno, artist Dave Lefner has always had a love for the city that surrounds him. His work reflects a nostalgia for its aging, but unique storefronts, signage, architecture, and car culture from all areas up and down the Left Coast.
For 25 years, Lefner has lived and worked in his studio at The Brewery Artist Lofts complex near DTLA, considered to be the world’s largest of its kind. For Lefner, this sunny, urban landscape serves as the perfect inspiration for his detailed, very limited-edition, reduction linoleum block prints.
He received a BA in Art from California State University at Northridge in 1993. It was there he discovered a love of typography, the colorful, abstract NYC cityscapes of Stuart Davis, as well as his biggest inspiration- Picasso’s series of linocuts from the 1950s.
For three decades now, Lefner has dedicated himself to preserving and perfecting what seems to be the dying art form of reduction block printmaking. Because of the immediacy of today’s world, this technique is being lost in the face of a digital age. But it’s the challenge and mystery of this labor-intensive process that intrigues him most, and continually drives him forward.
Lefner is widely recognized as a Master of his craft. Represented by several galleries in the States, he has exhibited abroad, as well. A solo exhibition in 2018, at the Pasadena Museum of California Art, garnered him a Los Angeles Times article, the third of his career. His detailed prints are also in numerous private and public collections, including the Permanent Collection of Prints and Drawings of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), as well as the Lamont Gallery at Phillips Exeter Academy. He was featured in a 12-minute documentary short, by Serena Creative, which airs frequently on KCET’s (PBS Socal) “Artbound”.
Artist Statement
Born into the sunny optimism of Southern California, I developed a true love of the Left Coast at an early age. The distinct architecture, urban landscape, and the car culture of the West soon became my main inspiration as my life as an artist began to blossom.
More intrigued by a mid-century modern vision of the world than the present, homogenized, pixilated digital era, I search for the beauty of a time gone by… Too young to have experienced this Golden Age firsthand, I daydream myself into a slower-paced, nostalgic America, where craftsmanship and design come together.
Pulling my images from still-existing gems, like vintage motels or mom&pop shop neon, or classic cars which seem to have been designed with the hope of reaching the moon, I try to document and preserve this lifestyle. Even my chosen medium of reduction linocut (innovated by Picasso in the 50s) is a tip-of-the-hat to artisans and a lost art form. It is my hope that we never forget….
Prints
“Cadillac Dreams”
– 38” x 63”
– 3 Reduction Linocuts, 11 colors
– Printed on a Conrad 30″ monotype press
– Lefner Editions in Los Angeles, CA
“Endless Summer”
– 28” x 65”
– 2 Reduction Linocuts, 12 colors
– Printed on a Conrad 30″ monotype press
– Lefner Editions in Los Angeles, CA
“The Galaxy Motel”
– 30” x 20”
– Reduction Linocut, 11 colors
– Printed on a Conrad 30″ monotype press
– Lefner Editions in Los Angeles, CA
“Holiday Motel”
– 30” x 45”
– Reduction Linocut, 8 Colors
– Printed on a Conrad 30″ monotype press
– Lefner Editions in Los Angeles, CA
“Now Playing”
– 19” x 52”
– Reduction Linocut, 11 Colors
– Printed on a Conrad 30″ monotype press
– Lefner Editions in Los Angeles, CA
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