Aubrey Levinthal “Neighbors, Strangers, Gazers, Bathers”

Monya Rowe Gallery

poster for Aubrey Levinthal “Neighbors, Strangers, Gazers, Bathers”

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Monya Rowe Gallery presents a solo exhibition of new paintings by Aubrey Levinthal titled Neighbors, Strangers, Gazers, Bathers.

In Levinthal’s previous solo exhibition at Monya Rowe Gallery, the paintings focused on her own daily interiority and the quotidian, mostly situated in the home. For this exhibition, Levinthal reflects on ones’ relationship to the outside world and moves the psychology away from the isolated self to a more unknown drifting space. The paintings are infused with more daylight, color has become brighter, and the figures are larger.

Shared environments, such as neighborhood coffee shops, yoga studios, hospitals, hotels and pools are fraught with nuanced tension and personal connection. Levinthal heightens the psychological space between observing and knowing. The paintings explore a sense of insecurity, self-reflection and curiosity in collective spaces. In Bagel Line (2022), a group of friends situated outside a bagel shop huddle closely together in winter coats. Their expressions range from anxious to annoyed to eager highlighting ones’ own duality.

The artist projects an interior life onto these strangers: a barista, a person standing in line, a blue-haired teenager at a take-out counter, or a shopper in a clothing store. Within the paintings, objects take on abstract shapes and act as barriers. In Crab Shack (2022), two brown paper bags give the impression of a wall in front of a pensive young woman.

Levinthal draws inspiration from the Renassiance period to Modernists such as, Mary Fedden (1915-2012), Milton Avery (1885-1965) and Fairfield Porter (1907-1975). Levinthal’s tenderly observed paintings illuminate the strangeness of daily interiority and introspection. In Yoga Mat (2022), the viewer is confronted with a lone woman in a yoga pose. The figure also doubles as an ancient sculpture, most evident in the shapes used and the manner in which the feet are depicted, as if resembling stone. This painting was directly inspired by the Egyptian sculpture titled Statue of Sitepehu (1479-1458 BCE), which is part of the permanent collection at the Penn Museum, Philadelphia.

Aubrey Levinthal (b. 1986, Philadelphia, PA) received an MFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA), Philadelphia, PA and a BA from The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA. She is a three-time recipient of an Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant and in 2017 was awarded a residency at Ballinglen Arts Foundation, North County Mayo, Republic of Ireland. Recent exhibitions include Haverkampf Galerie, Berlin; Workplace Gallery, London; Fleisher/Ollman, Philadelphia; M + B, Los Angeles; and Monya Rowe Gallery, NY. Levinthal’s work was recently included in the group exhibition “A Place for Me: Figurative Painting Now” at The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), Boston. The artist lives and works in Philadelphia, PA and is represented by Monya Rowe Gallery, NY.

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Schedule

from September 08, 2022 to October 22, 2022

Opening Reception on 2022-09-08 from 18:00 to 20:00

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