 We Are Here from Wherefore Art |
Lilia Levin participated in Wherefore Art in Spring 2019 at Village West.
"I was born in Russia, raised partly in Odessa (now Ukraine) and partly in Moscow. (My two homelands are now officially at war, even though no bullets are flying in either of my two childhood cities.
I have lived in New York City since the age of 17. Nowhere else in the US.
My art combines the Russian and American experiences. I paint in oil and draw (pen-and-ink) dense, meticulous figurative works, a mix of expressionism and symbolism. Most of my drawings are of people, burdened, bound, doubting, disguised. Most paintings are still-lifes: meaningful moody objects. I often use text, found objects, and photography (mostly my own) to achieve a merging of the subjective and the objective, the real and the imagined, or, perhaps,the remembered. Many works tell a story. The narrative is concerned with displacement, loss, change, reinvention, and hope (peace) on the global, political, and individual levels.
I have participated in many group shows in AIR Gallery, the oldest cooperative women's gallery in New York, Ceres Gallery, NoMAA, Women in the Heights at RIO, etc. I had drawings published in a number of literary magazines and in Slate.
In my day job, I am a jewelry designer for Kate Spade New York.
I have volunteered as an art teacher is NYC public schools, taught art classes in Washington Heights (Art Next Door), and done posters, CD and book covers, even wine labels, for many local fundraisers.
I live in Washington Heights with my husband and two children."
More information on Levin and her work can be found at lilialevin.nyc.