Avner Levinson

Avner Levinson's quest to explore the gap between every day, mundane life and the human aspirations, leads him to create abstract forms with faint (and some would say obvious) hints of figurative shapes. As many sculptors do, Levinson is shaping and reshaping the outcome of his ideas as he goes along.

As much as he is leading the sculpting process, so does the material he is working with; its responsiveness adding much to the outcome as if it has its own will. This has also prompted Levinson to shift from plaster and clay to paper mache mix. "This (material) allows me the freedom to cut, break and change the piece with ease while also working quickly. Paper mache has qualities that interest me; it's very light, fluid, flexible and frankly, more environmentally sound than many other materials". Another quality that attracts Levinson is the fact the only tools he is using with this material are his bare hands. One can't get more personal than that.


The works are laid out on steel armatures that Levinson welds himself, some at the beginning of the work, some during - as if an afterthought. As he works on a seemingly completed section of his sculpture, he may suddenly stop, break off a hardened piece of paper mache, then make a change to the underlying armature, and rebuild new layers of paper mache on it. Build, pat, sculpt, dry, break, rebuild and so on.


Levinson's Thesis exhibition opens this coming Wednesday, May 6th (6-9pm) at the New York Studio School gallery (8 W. 8th st, NY, NY) and will run through May 21st. You can see two additional works at the silent auction of the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) on May 9th, and on his website at www.avnerlevinson.com. Avner Levinson lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

Colette Wirz

"Kitchen creations", is how Colette describes her recent body of work. Starting with intense observation of objects, preferably live (like the 7 birds that live in her small Manhattan apartment, colorful fish she saw on her last trip to FL, items picked up in local flea markets or shells collected on a beach) are "taken in", and out come her own interpretations, dreams and reflections, landscapes juxtaposed with wild and still life alike.


Canvases line the walls, left and right, ready for her to add a touch here, a brush stroke there, whenever she feels the need. She can paint standing up, sitting down or even laying back on the couch - it's hard to predict a muse's visit.

You can see more of Colette's work here:

http://www.artbreak.com/colettewirz
http://cocogallery.blogspot.com/
http://www.absolutearts.com/portfolios/c/colettewirz/

Carol Salmanson

Moving from traditional painting to painting with light, Carol Salmanson employs the same concepts of layering and blending colors, textures and scale in her new work. Binding together LEDs and a variety of transparent, reflective and patterned surfaces, Salmanson creates what she refers to as "other-worldly environments", that stimulate the eye - especially when installed outdoors, where they successfully compete with the city's illuminated billboards.



Her work process includes, like any other artist, tedious experiments in different lighted mediums and light sources. Some of the process is strictly technical, soldering thousands of LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) to electronic circuit boards, testing how the color of each such tiny light source effects the entire piece.


Salmanson's show, Diaphany, runs through February 7th at the Mixed Greens gallery in Chelsea, NYC. The light installation is visible from the street level, 7 days a week from 8am to 10pm. You can see more of her work on her website, at www.carolsalmanson.com.