Aubrey Levinthal & Emily Pettigrew “Odd Hours”

Monya Rowe Gallery

This event has ended.

Monya Rowe Gallery presents a two-person exhibition featuring new paintings by Aubrey Levinthal and Emily Pettigrew. The title, Odd Hours, suggests the overlooked and the personal. By pairing Levinthal and Pettigrew together, the exhibition aims to reveal the rewards of close observation and poetic reflection.

Extracting ideas from the quotidian as inspiration for her paintings, Levinthal illuminates the silence of daily interiority. Informed by her immediate surroundings, moments are frozen in time, relatable, and on the edge of consciousness. In By the Pool (2021), a woman, looking downward, is positioned at the lower edge of the painting. Her bright red nails and the reflection of the sun on the pool are in contrast to her solemn expression.

Like Levinthal, Pettigrew has a predilection for depicting scenes that emanate an uneasy stillness. However, Pettigrew’s work is defined by a penchant for restraint. The color palette is often restricted to neutral shades such as browns and greys akin to Will Barnett (1912-2021) or Alex Katz (1927-). Pettigrew’s mysterious paintings are suggestive of film stills in their mise-en-scene compositions concentrated on light and narrative. For this exhibition, Pettigrew drew inspiration from Maine and the Catskills in upstate New York with literature and history being an ongoing inspiration.

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 Taymour Grahne Projects, London; Haverkampf Galerie, Berlin; Hollis Taggart, NY; and Monya Rowe Gallery, NY. Levinthal’s work is included in an upcoming group exhibition at The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), Boston in 2022. The artist lives and works in Philadelphia, PA.

Emily Pettigrew (b. 1991; York, Maine) received a BFA from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn. NY. In 2018 she was awarded a residency at Cill Rialaig Retreat, Ballinskelligs, Ireland, and was recently awarded a Roxbury Arts Group Grant from the New York State Arts Council on the Arts. Recent exhibitions include Shrine, NY; Drive-By Projects, MA; and the Art Museum of South Texas, TX. Pettigrew lives and works in Delhi, New York.