Mel Leipzig was born in Brooklyn in 1935, and resides in Trenton, N.J. He was a Professor at Mercer County Community College where he taught Painting and Art History until his retirement from teaching in 2013.
Leipzig received a Fulbright Grant to Paris (1958-59), a Louis Comfort Tiffany Award (1959-60), and four grants for painting from the New Jersey Council on the Arts (1982, 1986, 1992, 2002). In 1980 he was the first recipient of the Mercer County Community College Distinguished Teacher Award, Gold Medal and in 1996 was one of the last individual artists to receive a grant in Painting from the National Endowment for the Arts.
He studied at The Cooper Union from 1953-56 under Sidney Delevante, Stefano Cusumano, Nicholas Marsicano, Morris Kantor, Will Barnet and Neil Welliver, Yale University, School of Art & Architecture (B.F.A.) from 1956-58 under Josef Albers and James Brooks, and Pratt Institute (M.F.A.) from 1970-72 under Nan Benedict, Ralph Wickiser and George McNeill.
