As a native-born Angeleno, artist Dave Lefner has always had a love for the city around him.  His work 

reflects a nostalgia for its aging, but unique signage, storefronts, and architecture from all Los Angeles areas,  

ranging from the Valley to Hollywood, to his current home of Downtown L.A. 


    For Dave, the beauty of this metropolis, whether it’s found in the extreme shadows cast from a broken neon sign at midday or maybe the intricate web of powerlines crisscrossed overhead, provides the perfect inspiration for his detailed, very limited-edition, reduction linoleum block prints.  Since earning his degree in Art from the California State University at Northridge, he has made it his main goal to try to document the history of LA through its urban landscape to help in the preservation of this city, especially Downtown’s historical core.  Even in his chosen medium of reduction linocuts, he hopes to further his goal of preservation.  Because of the immediacy of today’s world, the labor-intensive, process-oriented technique of block printing is being lost and forgotten in the face of a digital age.  But for Lefner, the beautiful mystery of this process, as the piece slowly reveals itself with each new color, is worth preserving as much as his subject matter, his city- a ciudad of angels.


 

Biography

photo by Steve Anderson


Resume



Born:                          1969 Los Angeles, CA



Education:                 1993 BA, California State University, Northridge



Collections:


                                    Prints and Drawings Department of Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)



Commissions:


            2003                Commissioned Print for the Graphic Arts Council/ LACMA-  NexGen

                                    membership drive; fine art edition of 50 prints



Featured Artist Lectures and Workshops:


            2009                Reduction Linocut Lecture-  guest speaker @ Occidental College


            2008                Reduction Linocut Lecture-  guest speaker @ California State University, Northridge


            2006                Reduction Linocut Lecture-  hosted @ studio for Whittier College


            2002                Reducion Linocut Lecture/Workshop-  hosted/taught @ studio for

                                    the Graphic Arts Council/ LACMA



Exhibitions:


            2009                San Luis Obispo Art Center,  SLO, CA

                                    “Urbanist: Reduction Linocuts by Dave Lefner” (solo show)


            2009                Los Angeles Art Show,  LA Convention Center, CA

                                    Relief Print Demonstrations


            2008                Aardvark Letterpress, Los Angeles, CA

                                    “Los Angeles Loteria” First Series (group show)


            2008                Craig Olsen Inc., Los Angeles, CA

                                    Contemporary Artists Series (solo show)


            2007-8             Finegood Art Gallery, West Hills, CA

                                    “The Art of Printmaking” (group show)


            2000-2009       The Brewery Art Colony,  Los Angeles, CA

                                    “Bi-annual Open Studios Artwalk”


            2007                LA/Hollywood Beautification Team, Hollywood, CA

                                    “Los Angeles Icons: ART & THE CITY  (group show)


            2007                Art International: A Fine Art Fair, Pasadena, CA

                                    “Sharna & Dave Lefner” booth


            2006                Shepard Fairey’s Subliminal Projects,  Los Angeles, CA

                                    “Money is War” Artemio Rodriguez / “Paradise Lost” Dave Lefner (2 man show)


            2006                Bedlam Art Gallery,  Los Feliz, CA

                                    “Fin”  (group show)


            2006                Los Angeles Art Show,  Barker Hanger,  Santa Monica, CA

                                    Special selected Pharmaka, Brewery Art Colony, & Santa Fe Art Colony


            2005                Bedlam Art Gallery,  Los Feliz, CA

                                    “4 Masters of Tradition”  (group show)


            2005                The Standard Hotel,  Downtown LA, CA

                                    “It’s Just Us- Tsunami Relief”  (group show)


            2005                Self Help Graphics & Art,  Los Angeles, CA

                                    “Designer Showcase”  (group show)


            2005                Downtown Art Gallery,  Los Angeles, CA

                                    “Impressions-Impresiones”  (group show)


            2005                W. Keith & Janet Kellogg Univ. Art Gallery, 

                                    California State Polytechnic University,  Pomona

                                    “Ink & Clay 31” (group show)


            2004                Los Angeles Art Show,  Barker Hanger,  Santa Monica, CA

                                    Special selected Brewery Art Colony


            2004                La Mano Press,  Los Angeles, CA

                                    “Miniatures: Works on Paper- Juried Exhibition” (group show)

                                    Honorable Mention


            2003-4            Museum of Neon Art,  Los Angeles, CA

                                    “Nevada’s Neon Edens: Las Vegas and Reno”(group show)


            2003                I-5 Gallery,  Los Angeles, CA

                                    “Signs: Abandoned Poetry” (group show)


            2003                Armory Center for the Arts,  Pasadena, CA

                                    “Los Angeles Printmaking Society’s 17th National Exhibition”


            2003                RiskPress Gallery,  Los Angeles, CA

                                    “day of youth... to sullied night” (solo show)


            2002                I-5 Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

                                    “Small Works Show” (group show)


            2000                Pulp/ Illiterature, Los Angeles, CA

                                    “Linoleum Block Prints/ Collages” (solo show)


            2000                Museum of Neon Art, Los Angeles, CA

                                    “City in Relief” (solo show)


            1999                Zipper: Art, Form, and Function, Los Angeles, CA

                                    “Recent Linocuts” (solo show)



Featured Articles and Television Interviews:


            2009                Artworks Magazine, Summer 2009 issue

                                    “Dave Lefner” written by Erin Clark



            2009                New Times: San Luis Obispo Arts & Entertainment Weekly

                                    “Documenting What’s Disappearing” written by Christy Heron

                                    http://www.newtimesslo.com/art/2775/documenting-whats-disappearing/



            2009                Journal Plus: Magazine of the Central Coast

                                    “Art Scene: SLO Art Center Update” written by Gordon Fuglie



            2009                Artworks Magazine, LA Art Show Interview (Video)

                                    “Reduction Linocut Demonstration”

                                    http://artworksmagazine.com/?p=1957



            2008                Aardvark Letterpress Fine Art Editions 

                                    Los Angeles Loteria Series I: “El Inverso”

                                    http://aardvarkletterpressfinearteditions.com/



            2008                Featured Interview on Dirty Pretty Things

                                    http://ravenxxxx.blogspot.com/2008/02/pretty-things-spotlight-dave-lefner.html



            2005                The Los Angeles Times  May 12th

                                    “Artisans: Off the floor, on to the Walls” written by Steven Barrie-Anthony                        

                                    http://articles.latimes.com/2005/may/12/home/hm-lefner12



            2003                Featured Artist on HGTV- “The Carol Duvall Show”, show #1520

                                    http://www.hgtv.com/crafting/reductive-linoleum-block-prints/index.html