NYAB Event - Hannah Levy “Basic Essentials”

Hannah Levy “Basic Essentials”

James Fuentes LLC

This event has ended.

A man in khakis sits in a waiting room on a pleather couch, his skin bridges the pantone gap between the color of his pants and his soft seat. It’s very hot. Although he is waiting, he is excited. It’s very exciting to sit on a seat with the texture of cow skin, the tone of human skin, and the softness of another body. His sweaty arms make a noise as they slowly detach from the pleather. He wonders if there is a sweat stain on his pants; it would match the love seat by the door.

Levy describes her work as existing in a kind of design purgatory. The design strategies of impossibly curved and leaning signage are pushed to a point of humor. Ergonomic purpose is suggested, but the forms and materials indicate some anemic quality. They are medical, but they are also patients. They are exercise equipment, but they are weak. There is a focus on the body through a synthetisized contemporary understanding of the care of the self; ergonomic forms created to fill bodily cavities become their own pulsating bodies.The rubber used is that of prosthetic limbs and Hollywood horror films, the vinyl is the imitation flesh of inflatable sex toys, the carpet synthetic fur. Cat furniture looks like cat fur; human furniture looks like human skin. These synthetic materials embrace the clammy reality of ultra-sleek surfaces. A sweaty hand squeaks as it moves across a plexiglas surface, revealing the material stickiness of the ultra-clean. The work is quietly kinky in the way that the khakis and beiges of business casual are flesh toned.

Hannah Levy (b. 1991) is an American artist living in Frankfurt. She attends the Staedelschule where she holds a scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). In 2013, she graduated from Cornell University with a BFA and was awarded the Distinguished Achievement Award. This is her first exhibition in New York.