Joel LeBow’s art career began in New York in the 1950’s. Although a student of Franz Kline, Joel’s images in no way resemble the work of Kline. Instead, what he learned from Kline was to love paint itself, moving boldly with each brush stroke, giving it life and movement. Later in life, LeBow’s work retained it’s roots in abstract expressionism, but moved on to utilize the archetypal human figure as well as other forms derived from nature to express the human condition and its haunting memories. His artwork varies from watercolor, to acrylic, oil and even mixed media. LeBow’s earliest years as an abstract expressionist still holds a place in his current work which now hovers between the abstract and symbolic realism. Suffering from allergies to paint, Joel has changed his medium in recent years to a water soluble oil, in order to continue his oil painting.
“My mission over the past 60 years has been to make people remember and to feel.”
Joel LeBow’s works have been widely exhibited over the past sixty years and are represented in public, private, and corporate collections throughout the United States, Japan, Russia, China, Germany, Norway, and Ireland. He has exhibited in over 40 solo shows, 44 juried exhibits, 25 selected invitational shows and over 50 gallery group showings. He has called many cities home, including New York and Philadelphia. For the past 24 years LeBow has painted and lived in Jim Thorpe, PA. At the age of 81, Joel LeBow is Jim Thorpe’s most respected artist, part of the Anita Shapolsky Art Foundation’s permanent collection, and has donated his work to the Mauch Chunk Opera House.