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Steven Levin
“Message” oil painting, american realist, figurative, interior, contemporary

2024

$11,400
£8,578.25
€9,917.11
CA$16,097.13
A$17,454
CHF 9,262.63
MX$214,968.21
NOK 114,804.49
SEK 108,349.04
DKK 74,023.79

About the Item

Signed "Levin" on lower right corner "Message" shows two people in an office with a bird in between them, flying in from the window. There is something uncanny about this image. Perhaps it is that there are two people in a room overly focused on ‘communicating’ yet completely unaware of each other and nature. We also noticed that there are two paintings on the wall in front of the man, yet he is staring straight into the blank wall in between. We can’t help but see a visual similarity to the Renaissance paintings where the Virgin Mary receives the news that she is pregnant. Perhaps Levin is using this white dove as an emissary from Nature begging the 21st century couple to wake up to nature and humanity? Steven J. Levin - (b. 1964) is classical realist oil painter living and working in Stillwater, Minnesota. He grew up painting alongside his father—a commercial artist—and knew he wanted to be a painter early on. After high school he enrolled in the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and then the Atelier LeSueur in Excelsior, Minnesota (a descendant of the 19th century Boston School ateliers)—where the training was more in line with what Levin was drawn to as an emerging artist. Levin remained at the atelier as a student for five years and then a teacher for seven more years. He completed his studies with an extended stay in England to join the copyist program at London’s National Gallery. Although he enjoyed working in The Boston School tradition, Levin started to draw inspiration from artists with richer pallets such as Vermeer and Edward Hopper. Levin’s reputation as a colorist is strong and getting stronger with each passing year. His compositions range from surrealistic still lifes to multifigure scenes to landscapes—all done with precision and careful consideration of color, light, tone and composition. His “visual pun” paintings have delighted collectors and gallerists for years. This includes his “Plumage” series (which plays with the formal similarities of hats and bird’s nests), his “Books and Butterflies” series, and museum series (depicting paintings within paintings). Levin has exhibited widely and taken part in significant group and solo exhibitions in New York, London, San Francisco, Beijing, and Barcelona. He has been featured on the cover of American Artist Magazine and has been the recipient of numerous awards and prizes in national competitions including the American Society of Portrait Artists, the Allied Artists of America, the Portrait Institute, American Artist's Magazine, the Artist’s Magazine, the Oil Painters of America and the American Artists Professional League.. Artist Statement Essentially, my paintings are about beauty. Whether it be in my still life work, where I begin with a consideration of just the abstract elements of form and color, and then try to build interest with the careful arrangement of objects, or in the interior scenes which are usually about light, atmosphere, and mood, beauty is always the first subject. In some of my work I enjoy a kind of visual pun, as in the still life series called Plumage, where the juxtaposition of hats and bird’s nests are so similar in shape and with each having the element of feathers. The paintings of my museum series are undertaken with an implied wink at the depiction of paintings within paintings. Though I see painting as first and foremost a craft, it isn’t only that. Painting is about projecting that craft through a personality, memory and emotion in the attempt to capture an intangible thing which speaks in a language unavailable to any other mode of expression.
  • Creator:
    Steven Levin (1964, American)
  • Creation Year:
    2024
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 16 in (40.64 cm)Width: 20 in (50.8 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Sag Harbor, NY
  • Reference Number:
    Seller: LEV-0070951stDibs: LU389316792842

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