Gregg LeFevre is a New York-based artist known for his extensive body of public and private art, often incorporating cast metal reliefs that delve into the history and character of specific locations.
With many permanently installed public artworks across numerous American cities including New York, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, and Los Angeles, LeFevre has made a significant mark on urban landscapes.
Beyond large-scale installations, his public commissions also include detailed maps and medallions that reflect local narratives, such as the “Bronze Map of Trenton”, “Plaques in Tribute to Thomas Edison” and “Early Longmont” in Colorado.
LeFevre is the artist behind a dozen different public art projects in Manhattan. His most recognized work, “Library Walk” in New York City, features inumerous bronze reliefs embedded in the sidewalks of 41st Street, each referencing world literature and guiding visitors towards the New York Public Library.
Composed of almost 100 bronze reliefs with images and text about world literature, running for two blocks in the sidewalks of 41st, starting at Park Ave and terminating on Fifth Ave, across from the Schwarzman Library.
https://www.nypl.org/blog/2022/04/01/literary-inspiration-library-way
Since completing “Library Walk” in 1998, he’s completed over 200 commissioned public art works all over the world, from Azerbaijan to Saskatchewan to Tucson.
The ever expanding global fascination with art bodes well for his continued success as a public artist.
LeFevre’s artistic practice extends beyond public installations into a parallel career as a mixed-media artist and experimental photographer.
His studio work often explores the interplay between street photography and relief sculpture, particularly focusing on how commercial advertising in urban environments is altered or reinterpreted by others.
LeFevre has a large body of private work. Each type of work informs the other, and both focus on relief work, which has been an interest of LeFevre since he was a young boy in Upstate New York, peering down from the back seat of his mother’s plane.
Starting as a toddler, his Air Force pilot mother never tired of pointing out to him the varied topography of rural upstate New York from above, and this interest in relief has stayed with Le Freve his entire life.
His public projects like “Library Walk” are reliefs as are his private artworks.
His most recent work is inspired by the drapery of human figures depicted in both Classical and Neoclassical marble sculptures and oil paintings, and both provide the inspiration for many of LeFreve’s current mixed media wall reliefs and constructions.
In them is an interplay between the flat photo based images he begins with, and the three-dimensionality he creates by wrinkling his vinyl printed photographs, which sets up an interesting visual conflict in many of his pieces, between the flat original photographs and real 3-D wrinkles he creates.
It is difficult to tell which is “real” and which is “fake”, a nod to so many of our dilemmas in the age of AI.
His Bleecker Street studio in New York has been the site of creative accidents, leading to new works, and it has also hosted visitors seeking to experience his tactile bronze reliefs.
Gregg LeFevre graduated from Boston University with a B.A. in Philosophy, a background that infuses his art with intellectual rigor and visual poetry. His inspiration often stems from a deep interest in storytelling and exploring the “lost and forgotten stories” of places and people. This passion is evident not only in his public art, which aims to celebrate collective histories, but also in his podcast, “The Compulsive Storyteller,” where he shares short, personal anecdotes.
LeFevre’s commitment to telling stories, whether through a grand public artwork or a concise podcast episode, underscores his belief in the power of narrative to connect individuals to their surroundings and to each other.
Gregg LeFreve’s website
Public Art
https://www.andrewslefevre.com/
Wrinks website
https://www.wrinksbylefevre.com/
Podcast
https://www.thecompulsivestoryteller.com/
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