'Mel Leipzig: Mostly Recent Works' Comes to the MCCC Gallery, Now thru 12/27

"Mel Leipzig: Mostly Recent Works" comes to the Gallery at Mercer County Community College from today, Nov. 26 to Thursday, Dec. 27. Eighteen works by the internationally renowned artist who has taught at MCCC for more than four decades will be on display. The Gallery is located on the second floor of the Communication Building on Mercer's West Windsor campus, 1200 Old Trenton Road.

The community is invited to an Opening Reception on Wednesday, Nov. 28, from 5 to 8 p.m.  Gallery Talks will be presented by Professor Leipzig on Wednesday, Dec. 5 at 7 p.m. and Wednesday, Dec. 12 at noon.  The exhibit will be the backdrop for a Winter Solstice Concert featuring My Three Suns, an improvisational jazz ensemble, on Thursday, Dec. 20 at 6:30 p.m.  All events are free and open to the public. 

Leipzig, who has taught art and art history at Mercer since 1968, will retire from teaching in May, 2013, to pursue painting full-time. According to Gallery Curator Tricia Fagan, the exhibit has been conceived as a tribute to Leipzig.  "We wanted to do something that would honor Mel, in a tiny way, for all he has brought to the college and to the much larger art community in the region. This exhibit is a result."

Fagan continued, "It's clear that Leipzig's work as an artist has finally taken center stage in his life and he relishes the opportunity to focus more and more time on his painting. And he certainly has paid his dues as an impassioned and dedicated professor over the past 45 years. How many lives has he touched? How many artists has he inspired? An astonishing legacy."

She notes that Leipzig specifically requested that this show not be a retrospective, but rather should focus on works completed in the last few years, including several that he completed only recently.  Several paintings will feature Mercer professors, including MCCC Theatre Program Coordinator Jody Person and the cast of the college's student production of Hedda Gabler, another featuring Mathematics Professor Art Schwartz in the classroom, and Leipzig's just-finished painting of Andrea Lynch, associate professor of Computer Concepts and Business.

Gallery hours for this exhibit are: Sundays and Mondays, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.; and Thursday, 5 to 7 p.m.  For more information, call the Gallery at 609-570-3589 or visit the Gallery website atwww.mccc.edu/gallery.