The work of Ash Lieb deals in the absurd. While one element deals with the laughter, nonsense and ridicule of absurd or surreal humour, the other deals with the philosophical definition of absurdism, regarding the conflict between pursuing the meaning of life and the inability to find it.

Lieb’s first ever solo exhibit “Old Shoe” was held in the July of 1991 at the Ballarat Civic hall site when the artist was just eight years of age. By the age of eleven, the artist had staged five solo exhibitions amongst countless other group shows in concert halls, galleries and clubs between Ballarat and Melbourne. In 1995, after months where even short car rides was torture and simply lying still to sleep at night was a nightmare, the twelve year old artist had surgery to remove a tumour pressing upon his spine.

By the middle of 1998, the artist would complete his first short novel “The Secret Well”, which would go on to be published just days after his sixteenth birthday. Just a year later, another story “Bleach” would also be published.

At the age of twenty, the artist was struck down with a rare life threatening brain tumour, and after completing the story entitled “The Technicolor Transgressions of the Blue Rose” in mere months, Lieb would undergo brain surgery in 2003 and again in 2007 with radiation treatments whilst studying the final year of a visual arts degree in digital art at Ballarat university.

In 2009, Lieb would have his first solo exhibit in eleven years while living in Brisbane, where he regularly performed comedy on stage and held exhibitions in a temporary space known as Cruel World gallery. The following year, Lieb would perform comedy on stage to packed crowds at the Geelong Performing Arts Centre and Fitzroy’s Evelyn Hotel.

The artist’s first exhibition of digital artworks was held in April of 2011 in a one man show at Space 22 entitled “The Meaning of Life“.

In January of 2013, Lieb held his first solo exhibition at Ballarat’s Red Brick gallery with an exhibit of small artworks called “How not to be seen” and in October of 2013, the artist presented his art for the first time at Ballarat’s Backspace Gallery with an exhibit of spiritual themed images in a show entitled “the Holy Grail“.