David Lenz: People on the Periphery

People on the Periphery is a major retrospective of David Lenz’s work, celebrating the painter’s passionate and intimate depictions of inner-city children, people with intellectual disabilities, and small-time rural farmers. Lenz is one of America’s preeminent portrait painters; in 2006 he won the first Outwin Boochever Portrait Award, sponsored by the National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC, with a portrait of his son Sam. The award was the Gallery’s first non-presidential commission. 

His remarkable photo-realist technique underscores his subjects’ authenticity as they are representatives of groups that are often ignored or marginalized. The show will span the years 1990 to 2016 including many works that have rarely been seen in public as well as several that are making their debut at MOWA. 

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.

Whether you go or not, David M. Lenz Urban and Rural Paintings of Wisconsin, is a collection of intimate portraits revealing the instant beauty of everyday people in scenes of modern American life. In his paintings, Lenz captures the essence of the unsung Americans through gritty social realism. The works engage the viewer in the lives of the subjects, inviting and inspiring hope.