Levin’s tromp l’oeil work is derived from a tradition of painting in northern Europe dating back to the 17th century as practiced by baroque artists such as Cornelis Gijsbrechts and Georg Hainz. The work is based on the wunderkammers or curiosity cabinets which conventionally are direct depictions of actual collections of the type. Levin’s interest on the dilemma of the illusion of the implausible made him shun the usual play on the expectations of the viewer in approaching his work. His thinking inevitably led him to the path to surrealism. According to Levin, ‘The logic of the dream is relevant to his thinking about the work. The juxtaposition of disparate objects may really be only a metaphor for that logic but there is a dreamlike richness which can arise from the dislocation of context.’
Art Education: MFA the University of California, Davis; BA Reed College, Portland, Oregon, and the Art Institute of Chicago. Awards: Roswell Artist-in-Residence Program, Nominee for Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Fellowship, and Massachusetts Artists Fellowship Finalist Award.