calendario eventi  :: 

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11/5/2007

Three Exhibitions

Jonathan LeVine Gallery, New York

Vitche - Equilibrium
Gallery I

Jonathan LeVine Gallery is pleased to present Equilibrium, Brazilian native Vitche’s first solo exhibition in New York. The show will feature a large collection of paintings, sculptures and an installation. For Equilibrium, Vitche explores how the relationship between man and nature has been lost in modern society. He incorporates themes of politics, nature, ancient cultures and the human condition to formulate questions of environmental consciousness. “To me every ancient culture has an intimate connection with the earth’s spirit.” Combining stylistic elements and techniques of graffiti and sculpture, Vitche channels his life experiences and influences of Brazilian culture to revive the primitive energy of forgotten civilizations.

Vitche translates iconography of religion, rituals, and sacred symbols to create a rich and complex dialogue of culturally significant visual narratives. Influenced by Polynesian and Aztec cultures and Brazilian Indians, he references figural characters and animals in his work. For his installation, Vitche illustrates ancient and modern energies colliding on a large-scale. A dragon, symbolizing the modern-age, battles with a tranquil dream world. The essence of materials and color is paramount in Vitche’s work. Transforming materials from one state to another, using found wood objects from the street; he expands the connection between the material’s origin, urban environment, and new medium. Red, black, and white often dominate his work, symbolic of life’s more trivial qualities, while green is frequently present, representing the void of such color in city streets. Through these contradicting methods, Vitche creates concern for modern society’s rapid development and change.

Vitche is a painter, sculptor and graffiti artist based out of São Paulo, Brazil. He has developed a diverse style, describing himself as abstract, political, and lyrical, equating his artistic process with that of being alive. He uses his work to fill voids and change what he does not like in a given setting. Vitche allows his materials and urban environment to inspire him whether he is working in the streets or in his studio. Each setting provides a different point of view as he lets his imagination create a visual reality with accompanying narratives. As a child, he used found objects like wood, canvas, and metals to create new pieces and stories as he still does today. Vitche continues to be as original as possible by stepping away from popular graffiti content like hip-hop to the unexpected genre of the circus as well as extending his medium to include photography. His work is internationally recognized. Most recently, Vitche exhibited in Cuba’s Urban Panel Project, Los Angeles’s Scion Gallery, and San Francisco’s Upper Playground. In March an exclusive interview with Vitche was published in Juxtapoz magazine.

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AJ Fosik - At The Edge of Town
Gallery II

Jonathan LeVine Gallery is please to present At The Edge of Town an exhibition of new mixed media sculptures by AJ Fosik. This will be Fosik’s second exhibition at Jonathan LeVine Gallery, his first solo show and largest exhibition to date. Drawing inspiration from his background creating street art and signage, Fosik’s work possesses wit, humour, and raw subversiveness. For At The Edge of Town, Fosik creates eclectic and intricately designed animal sculptures and paintings using wood and found materials. He handcrafts each form, which often involves a painstaking process of arranging hundreds of pieces of individually cut, varnished, and painted wood in vibrant color patterns. Sculptures are mounted or constructed as freestanding forms, alluding to modern taxidermy practices. Fosik’s uncanny representation of man-made animals, and absurd notion of preservation of such artificial creatures, parlays to Fosik’s playful discourse. Fosik embraces the kitschy elements of taxidermy, presenting his sculptures in various poses, echoing that of popular displays offered as hunting trophies.

Through a process evocative of American Folk Art, Fosik renders his animals as simultaneously unnatural and anthropomorphized beings. He explores the powerful medium of language and metaphor to emphasize narrative and interpretation. A cluster of cultural icons and familiar imagery stemming from Americana is, in fact, merely a series of paradoxes. For some creatures he renders them half animal, half human with rifle in hand. Viewers are confronted with cryptic symbols from overlapping sources, both traditional and contemporary, which intrigue and provoke. Fosik engages the viewer and evokes questioning of familiar concepts, creating a dynamic tension where art and viewer come together in an expanded definition of culture and assumption.

AJ Fosik studied illustration at Parsons School of Design and graduated in 2003. An avid traveler, Fosik prefers the experience of foreign and constantly changing environments. Fosik’s work has been published in SWINDLE magazine The New York Sun, Wooster Collective, Ideal Digital, and Juxtapoz magazine.

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Matt Haber and Andy Kehoe - Trouble, Pass Me By
Project Room

Jonathan LeVine Gallery is proud to announce, Trouble, Pass Me By, a two-person exhibit of new pieces by Matt Haber and Andy Kehoe. This show will be the first opportunity for both emerging artists to exhibit a larger repertoire. It is Matt Haber’s largest show to date and Kehoe’s first show at Jonathan LeVine Gallery. Both artists explore theme of moral conflict through character-based work.

For Trouble, Pass Me By, Matt Haber expands his universe of whimsical characters to include gods at war with mortals in an exploration of the human experience. He utilizes his interest in storytelling and metaphor to express an interminable cycle of human greed, revenge, and malice. Theatrical settings inhabited by characters including circus strongmen, dinosaurs, sea life and sorcerers are juxtaposed with violent imagery. Mortals ultimately prevail, decapitating the heads of immortals, a metaphor for destroying supreme indulgence. Haber’s continuous narratives weave and overlap, symbolic of a child’s perspective and moments of acute psychological and emotional awareness. To heighten this allegorical state, Haber flattens and simplifies his composition, utilizing a technique reminiscent of folk art and hand painted Greek and Roman vessels.

Andy Kehoe provokes ambiguity in his paintings and explores an interaction between figures and their natural surroundings, as well as the contrast between natural beauty and human ugliness. To escape personal anxiety, Kehoe paints isolated and seemingly peaceful scenes complete with monochromatic pastoral environments. However, undertones of unease and conflict permeate his work. Animals and human figures symbolize power, anxiety, truth, and fear. The characters play out Kehoe’s emotions and his observations. Recurring characters in Kehoe’s work includes the two-headed crow, or "King Crow" who is the ruler of the land and his sons, the politicians who fight over power. Kehoe’s lion character is a fighter for truth, creating a balance of power, defeating the crooked and corrupt. Other new characters in his work include tax collectors and a figure Kehoe uses to embody himself.

Andy Kehoe currently lives and works out of Pittsburgh. He has shown in a number of group shows around the country, most recently in 2006, including Power in Numbers at Nucleus Gallery and Under the Table at Black Maria, both in Los Angeles, and Grand Union in Brooklyn NY’s Front Room. Kehoe’s illustration work includes such clients as The New York Times, The Progressive, Metropolis, and The Stranger.

Matt Haber is a San Diego native who lives and works in Los Angeles and New York. He studied at RISD and worked with Walt Disney Animation and Fox Animation as a storyboard artist and assistant animator, all which have all helped to shape his insight into storytelling and colorful style. Haber develops a narrative tradition developed in cartoons and comic books to create character-driven works that reflect a range of emotion. The sweetness and innocence of his characters belies the mature, adult scenarios that they encounter. Haber has shown in numerous galleries across the country including his 2005 solo show, Hand holders, hold on, at Black Market Gallery in Los Angeles and several group shows including 2005’s Sometimes I Just Want a Hug and Fork in the Road at Jonathan LeVine Gallery, and I Know What Girls Want, I Know What Boys Like at Gallery 1988, Los Angeles. Haber has been published in Juxtapoz Magazine, Flavorpill.

Opening Reception: Saturday, May 12, 7pm - 9pm

Jonathan LeVine Gallery
529 W. 20th Street - New York
Free admission

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