Richard Levine

Fluency #2 Abstract on Paper

2018

Born in Newark, New Jersey, Richard Levine is a painter and photographer whose professional career has spanned more than 30 years in the graphic arts working for prominent design firms and corporate clients. A graduate of the Fairleigh Dickinson University, he later studied oil painting for four years with artists Alan Turner and Andrew Lattimore and photography with Gary Winogrand. Additional studies were at the Cooper Union and The School of Visual Arts, New York City. Extensive travel throughout the US, Europe and Asia has formed the foundation for his work. Photo documentary work has included the Darfur refugee camps in Eastern Chad for the International Medical Corps and childhood health conditions in the Mississippi Delta with the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Richard has exhibited widely on the East Coast from Virginia to Maine in both solo and group shows. He is a 2017/18 recipient of a grant from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation. He won the second prize in the 2016 Bethesda Painting Awards. Levine was awarded a NY State Certificate of Merit for his exhibit: India, A Traveler’s Reflections. In September 2016, he was featured cover artist for the Journal of Financial Service Professionals. His documentary work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Jewish Heritage, New York. “My love of travel and exploration spark the inspiration, both spiritual and visual that I derive from experiencing the new landscape, people and culture which in turn invigorates my work and challenges me to both portray and understand our world. I like to paint and photograph in places where the weather, the traditions, and the geography still dominate; where these elements identify and characterize a locale. Where I can still connect to what has gone before, and one feels an authentic sense of place,” he says. The work of Richard Diebenkorn and the poured paint techniques of the Color Field painters inspire and inform this new work.