DAN KEPLINGER, A K A KING GIMP,
The subject of the 2000 Oscar-winning documentary, "King Gimp," Mr. Keplinger has cerebral palsy, which keeps him in a wheelchair and requires him to paint using a brush attached to his head. Despite these obstacles he paints and draws with ambitious verve, creating aggressively expressionistic self-portraits in acrid, muddy colors. This is the 29-year-old artist's second New York solo, and it shows a heartening determination.

Ken Johnson The New York Times, November 22, 2002

King of Arts
The Phyllis Kind Gallery in SoHo is currently hosting an exhibition of work by the remarkable Dan Keplinger — an artist with cerebral palsy who sometimes goes by the pseudonym King Gimp.

Keplinger, the creator and star of the Oscar-winning short documentary "King Gimp" (2000), is an accomplished painter, known for a sophisticated flair for color and composition, who creates his art with a brush fastened with a helmet-like device strapped to his head.

"I believe this show is a quantum leap forward in his work," says the gallery's director, Ron Jagger. "The paintings are charged with an intensity that just leaps out at you."

The 30-year-old Keplinger, a Maryland native, has worked tirelessly his entire life to minimize the uncontrollable movements that characterize his disease, and now he finds his work being compared to artists like Van Gogh.

"Dan uses the word 'gimp' as an empowering gesture," says Jagger. "It's a name that doesn't just refer to his physical condition, but also to his fighting spirit."

Joe Cunningham New York Newsday, November 16, 2002