Helge Leiberg

Helge Leiberg speaks openly about his passion for art and music. His studio, located next to the studios of Scheib and Peter Herrmann in Berlin-Spandau, is a bright, workshop-style space with a bright orange sofa. It houses a large collection of artworks, all neatly stored and very well organized. A wide variety of sculptures and large stretched canvases—some finished, others still in progress—along with catalogues and tools, bear witness to his industriousness. We enthusiastically leaf through the many drawings and illustrated books. He pulls »They’re Riding Again« (140 × 160 cm, 2019) out of storage. Leiberg, too, has taken up the theme of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. In a style that is both painterly and cartoonishly furious, they burst forth on their horses from the center of the painting. A »BOOM!« expressed through the visual language of colour.

Leiberg was born in Dresden in 1954, where, as a critical thinker, he formed early connections and friendships with other outsiders in the art scene. In 1973, he began studying fine arts in Dresden under Prof. Gerhard Kettner. Starting in 1978, he began exploring music and dance. In 1979, he founded the »Malerband freier Musik« (Painters’ Band of Free Music) with Michael Freudenberg and A. R. Penck; he also presented his first projection painting, »The Migration to Another Planet Will Not Take Place—House Earth«. From that point on, multimedia became a fundamental element of Leiberg’s art. He traveled through the Near East and Eastern Europe, directed films, and participated in a district exhibition in Dresden in 1979. Leiberg, along with Sabina Grzimek and Peter Herrmann, among others, was featured at the IX. Art Exhibition of the GDR. But Leiberg was a thorn in the side of the authorities. In 1983, he was expelled and settled in West Berlin. There, a year later, he revived the O.T. band—which had first performed in 1979/80—with A. R. Penck. The close friends made music together and also collaborated on a mural for the University Library of Hamburg in 1989.

In his studio, Leiberg points out a piece. »This is very important to me«, he says, and carefully unwraps »The Horse« (Band O.T.), (240 × 150 cm, 1993) from its protective cover. It’s just a bit of acrylic paint on a bit of canvas—yet the painting brims and bursts with energy and a zest for life. The figures are full of energy, intensely focused; the trumpeter has an erection, the drummer’s arms fly through the air, and you can practically hear the music. This painting absolutely must be taken to Halberstadt, because jazz was not merely a side note at St. Martini Church, but a celebrated art form. Whether in sculpture or painting, his figures—with their elongated limbs—are always in motion. Dancing, rearing up, intertwined, and—as in his 1996 work »Spizzeltanz«—swaying on tiptoes, as if it would take just one more step to cross the edge of the canvas.

In 2010, Leiberg founded the project »Gamble & Hope«. Together with Almut Kühne, Lothar Fiedler, and Heiner Reinhardt, he performs in jazz-oriented live shows in which he uses noise painting to create a musical response to the projected drawings on transparencies. They will be performing live at the opening of the VI. MKH-Biennale.

Helge Leiberg
Painter, Sculptor, and Performer

Awards and Honors

Regular exhibitions in Germany and abroad since completing his studies