NAME: Chad Kipfer
BIRTH PLACE: Telluride, CO
BIRTH DATE: 4.5.84
BIOGRAPHY
i was born in telluride, CO. i spent 18 or so years there going to preliminary school and working various construction jobs and making art. i sold my first pieces of art in telluride, a couple of landscapes and still lifes and eventually worked my way into the telluride aids benefit art auction where i was, and maybe still am the youngest artist to donate work to the show, which i have done for 6+ years running. i came to san francisco to go to college where i attended usf and studied fine art...yes, usf does have an art program, not the one i thought it did, but thats not the point. while at usf i worked with some amazing artist and teachers, painted murals with rigo and jett and continued showing my work. cafe, cafe, cafe, the gallery lounge, canvas, pizza place, and the side-walk outside of my various apartments have all shown my work in san francisco. the first ones got landscapes, portraits, and still-lifes, the latter random abstractions and drug indueced explorations. there once was a time when my work was almost entirely political but that has almost entirely passed.
my work now is defined by the lines that make it up. the brush strokes and process are left bare in my work, exposing the line and sometimes its intention. each line in turn telling a tale of a brush found or an idea abandoned and together making up the piece in front of you. acrylic and enamel paint give me the freedom and ideal time frame to build a piece line by line and so i do. often taking so much joy in a new color or way of painting that it will dominate my work for months. in this way i am not interested as much in what is produced as the process of producing it and the feeling of making it. a friend and peer once told me that my work looks, "fun to make." and it is, when its not torture. line by line.
i now paint and show my work at Big Umbrella Studios a new co-op started by recent usf grads. that has given me the opportunity to show my work consistently and enjoy more of my favorite street in sf // d - i - v - i - s a - d e r o. if you are in town come and visit us and view my work at 906 1/2.
