February 14, 2019 / March 31, 2019  – LOS ANGELES

Over the Influence is honored to present Working Lunch bringing together 32 of LeRoy Neiman’s dynamic drawings he made in transit. Working Lunch will be on view from February 14 through March 31st with a reception on February 16 from 11 am – 6 pm.

The artist carried notebooks with him throughout his life and was an obsessive documentarian. He continually made drawings wherever he was, even if he didn’t have a notebook on hand. In these instances, he might grab paper or any sort of canvas from his immediate environment, drawing on tablecloths, menus, scorecards, playbills, and the like. The delightful pieces included in this exhibition represent a small portion of where he was, who he was with, and the goings-on of the moment. These works are, in a sense, a document of these junctures in time.

Neiman’s drawings place both the artist and the viewer in a specific milieu, transporting one back in time to disparate geographies and locales at once typical, extraordinary, and offbeat. These works, further, seem to track Neiman throughout his life, artifacts, and mementos that today represent not only his prolific output but his daily routines, evening plans, or weekend habits. The plots and schemes depicted here are the drawings that the artist felt compelled to make immediately—pieces made at once and on site. In many instances, there was little need to take them back to his studio. These pieces represent fragments not simply in his typical day, but from histories lost to time. Most all note date and a place, a timestamp that today seems to predate the digital stamp that orders, collates, and regulates our existence. In this regard, Neiman’s works provide an analog version of the way we organize our contemporary lives.