Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 21

Wendy Letven
"Taxonomy" Hanging Aluminum Mobile, Black & White, 9' Tall, Dimensions Variable

2023

$8,500
£6,318.78
€7,397.24
CA$11,887.87
A$13,273.12
CHF 6,923.62
MX$163,212.75
NOK 87,384.71
SEK 82,269.63
DKK 55,183.47
Shipping
Retrieving quote...
The 1stDibs Promise:
Authenticity Guarantee,
Money-Back Guarantee,
24-Hour Cancellation

About the Item

Wendy Letven's brilliantly colored and black and white abstract mobiles, wall sculptures and freestanding pieces of painted aluminum are an exciting addition to genres which the artist has extraordinarily reinvigorated with forms that are playful, elegant, sophisticated and unique. In the case of the mobiles and wall pieces (which extend approximately 4 - 8 inches from the wall) reflected shadows are a marvelous aspect of Letven's works. "Taxonomy" consists of 3 hanging strands of forms attached to nylon wire, as shown in the installation photo the height is approximately 9 feet, however Letven always tweaks her works to be very site specific and a perfect fit for the space. Occasional and subtle scientific references ( molecules, atoms, astronomy, physics) add gravitas and intellectual weight to works that are pure visual delights - humorous, quite complex and intricate, wildly colorful (or more subdued in black, white and/or silver). Natural is equally influential. Working in sizes as small as 10" high to 10' long, there is an enormous range of possibilities with Letven's sculptures as mobiles, pedestal and shelf pieces, freestanding works, and very large commissions adaptable to both walls and huge spaces for interior and/or exterior sites: Wendy Letven "Taxonomy" 2023 Hanging Mobile of Acrylic and Powder Coated Enamel on Aluminum 9 Feet High (As Shown in Photo, Dimensions Variable, can be Adapted for Site) Wendy Letven is the recipient of The 2023 Sculpture Fellowship from The New Jersey State Council on the Arts and is currently working on a large installation for a public school in Brooklyn as part of the NY Percent for Art Fund for Public Schools. A multi-disciplinary artist, also working with 2 dimensional paintings and canvas and paper, Letven has been very successfully exhibiting in the U.S. and abroad. Her sculptures are in many public and private collections and she is often commissioned to scale up (or adapt to a specific site) existing pieces that the artist will tweak to perfectly fit its location. John Michael Cohen, critic for The Brooklyn Rail, contributed this insightful review of Letven’s works featured in the 2018 exhibition ‘Site: Brooklyn’ Artists’: "Letven makes her works out of colored paper cut by lasers according to computer-made designs, then puts them together into remarkably complex but precise assemblages. These tend to resemble something halfway between a machine’s inner workings and snapshots of the various stages of an explosion. Each of the colored paper (or aluminum) components is attached to or threaded through one or several of the others. Their shapes – fractals, loops, webs, hexagons – evoke associations with a number of natural and artificial patterns: gears, piping, circuitry, and metal grilles, but also snowflakes, molds, crystals, string, mushrooms, shells, corals and sponges. Her best piece, ‘Spin Out,’ makes a radical rejection of abstraction’s typical flatness its central concern….it’s Leven who comes closest (in the 2018 ‘Site:Brooklyn’ exhibition) to charting a viable new path for abstraction. Light and heavy, flat and full all at once, her work uses color not just to imitate space but to play with the very idea of it, to marvelous effect. But it was her laser-precise paper cut-outs which left me thinking hardest. By consciously juxtaposing patterns drawn from technology and nature against each other….Letven seems to be interrogating humanity’s relationship to the world from which it sprang, discovering forms which blur the distinction we tend to make between ourselves and our ecology….for me, the real discovery of the exhibit was Wendy Letven." (John Michael Colon from The Brooklyn Rail) Artist's Statement: "Through my sculpture practice, I am working through a deep impulse to make material and concrete the sense of energy and vitality I observe in daily life. Inspiration can come from the weather, a ripple on the surface of a lake, from botanicals and insects, as well as from architecture, urban infrastructure and media. I find, collect, and develop fragments of observations as sketches. Over time I have amassed a large index of bits and bytes of imagery and motifs I return to again and again. All is processed and refined digitally and translated into sculptural form through my chosen materials of paper, wire, sheet metal and paint. These I bend, fold, cut into and paint, creating works that allow for a dialogue between color, substance, light and shadow. They retain a connection to the immediacy, energy and simplicity of my primary activities, which are observation through drawing and working with materials by hand. I am interested in blurring the boundary between drawing, sculpture and painting in this way." (Wendy Letven) Wendy Letven was raised in Philadelphia. She received a BFA from the Tyler School of Art and an MFA from Hunter College. In addition to her recent Fellowship from the New Jersey Council on the Artist, Letven is also a MacDowell Colony Fellow and a recipient of a Workspace Grant from Dieu Donne Papermill in New York. Currently she is working on a permanent public sculpture for the lobby of PS at Schermerhorn in Brooklyn, funded by New York City’s Percent for Art program. Her work is in private collections worldwide as well as in such public locations as The Riverside Park Conservancy, Brookfield Properties, Art on Paper Fair, Market Art and Design, and The Sheila R. Johnson Gallery at the New School among others. Letven’s work has been featured in over 60 one-person and group exhibitions in the US and abroad. Her studio is in New Jersey and she teaches Art and Design at Parsons School of Design and at Montclair State University.
  • Creator:
    Wendy Letven
  • Creation Year:
    2023
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 108 in (274.32 cm)Width: 34 in (86.36 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Wellesley, MA
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU456312642492

More From This Seller

View All
"Crystal Cloud" Wall Piece, Painted Metal, Silver, Chrome, White, Sparkly Black
Located in Wellesley, MA
Wendy Letven's brilliantly colored abstract wall sculptures and freestanding pieces of painted aluminum are an exciting addition to genres which the artist has extraordinarily reinvigorated with forms that are playful, elegant, sophisticated and unique. Extending approximately 4 - 8 inches from the wall, reflected shadows can also be a marvelous aspect of Letven's works. Occasional and subtle scientific references ( molecules, atoms, astronomy, physics) add gravitas and intellectual weight to works that are pure visual delights - humorous, quite complex and intricate, wildly colorful (or more subdued in black, white and/or silver). Natural is equally influential. Working in sizes as small as 10" high to 10' long, there is an enormous range of possibilities with Letven's sculptures as pedestal and shelf pieces, freestanding works, and very large commissions adaptable to both walls and huge spaces for interior and/or exterior sites: Wendy Letven "Crystal Cloud...
Category

2010s Contemporary Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Metal, Enamel

"Outer Orbit" Abstract Wall Sculpture Painted Aluminum, Rust/Black/Silver/Orange
Located in Wellesley, MA
Wendy Letven's brilliantly colored abstract wall sculptures and freestanding pieces of painted aluminum are an exciting addition to genres which the artis...
Category

2010s Contemporary Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Metal, Enamel, Wire

'Unraveled' Abstract Geometric Wall Piece Wood /Paint/Textile Black/White/Grays
By Jean Feinberg
Located in Wellesley, MA
ADDITIONAL PHOTOS OF THIS WORK WILL BE SENT UPON REQUEST: Jean Feinberg is a NY based artist whose wall constructions - paintings on found wood and paintings on painted plywood - a...
Category

2010s Abstract Geometric Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media, Burlap, Muslin, Oil, Wood Panel, Gesso

'Ragged' Abstract Geometric Wall Piece Wood/Paint/Textile in Black, White, Grays
By Jean Feinberg
Located in Wellesley, MA
ADDITIONAL PHOTOS OF THIS WORK WILL BE SENT UPON REQUEST: Jean Feinberg is a NY based artist whose wall constructions - paintings on found wood and paintings on painted plywood - ar...
Category

2010s Mixed Media

Materials

Gesso, Textile, Plywood, Mixed Media, Oil, Wood Panel, Other Medium

"One Morning in April" Large Abstraction, Pop Sensibility, Black, White, Pink
By Margo Margolis
Located in Wellesley, MA
"One Morning in April" Large Abstraction of Black, White, Pink, Red, Tan and Teal Blue, Flashe and Collage on Canvas, 72 x 60 Inches. This painting has a very sophisticated sens...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Mixed Media

'Untitled' Abstract Geometric Wall Piece Wood/Paint/Textile Black, White, Grays
By Jean Feinberg
Located in Wellesley, MA
ADDITIONAL PHOTOS OF THIS WORK WILL BE SENT UPON REQUEST. NOTE COLOR OF WOOD IS NOT QUITE AS YELLOW AS IIT APPEARS IN PHOTO AND IS IN KEEPING WITH OTHERS IN THIS SERIES: Jean Fein...
Category

2010s Abstract Geometric Mixed Media

Materials

Gesso, Oil, Wood Panel, Muslin

You May Also Like

The Fog #2_Matt Devine_White/Hanging/Suspended_Aluminum_Sculpture Installation
By Matt Devine
Located in 326 N Coast Hwy. | Laguna Beach, CA
Matt Devine "The Fog #2" Aluminum with White Powder Coat Hanging/Suspended Sculpture 30 inches x 67 inches x 33 inches Matt Devine is a self-taught sculptor working with steel, alum...
Category

2010s Contemporary Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Metal

Thea II suspended kinetic sculpture
By Tim Prentice
Located in Glen Ellen, CA
Suspended kinetic sculpture in aluminum and stainless steel by renowned American artist Tim Prentice. Site-specific commissions for indoor and outdoor kinetic...
Category

2010s Abstract Geometric Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Stainless Steel

Big Louise suspended kinetic sculpture
By Tim Prentice
Located in Glen Ellen, CA
Suspended kinetic sculpture in Lexan (polycarbonate), aluminum, and stainless steel. Commissions for indoor and outdoor kinetic sculptures also availab...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Geometric Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Stainless Steel

Black and White Vertical
By Peter Reginato
Located in New York, NY
Medium: Insl-tron on steel [suitable for outdoor installation] ... Peter Reginato (American, b. 1945), A noted contemporary sculptor whose chosen medium is steel, Reginato was born i...
Category

Early 2000s Abstract Geometric Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Steel

"Gershwin" Large-Scale, Abstract Metal Sculpture in Brushed Aluminum
By Richard Pitts
Located in New York, NY
"Gershwin" by Richard Pitts Brushed aluminum Richard Pitts works in many media, from steel to wood to bronze to aluminum, not to mention his paintings. His often colorful, abstract ...
Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Metal

'Mumbo Jumbo' - large-scale abstract, 3-D, sculptural, black and white, wood
Located in Atlanta, GA
This large-scale multi piece work features organic and undulating wood-cut shapes. Black and white. Colombian-born, Atlanta-based artist Esteban Patino...
Category

2010s Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Wood, Acrylic