JESS LEVIN: Hibernate
Clay Art Center Gallery, June 22 - Aug 04, 2023
Jess Levin earned a BFA from the State University of New York at Purchase, NY, concentrating in ceramics with hints of fabrics to show the balance between the soft and the fragile. They use a bright, colorful, cartoonish sculpting style to bring to life a narrative of self-exploration and expression.
Artist Statement
“The colorful yet quiet animal-human hybrids I create communicate a sense of serenity and relationship between fauna and human. Imagination is an essential part of any child, and playing pretend as a child is a gateway into self-exploration. With this in mind, I have started to take a more mythical approach with my practice by taking these horned animals and imagining them in a more whimsical way.
These friendly creatures act as guardians for the larger and more animated personified animals that they surround. The guardian character I continue to reimagine in my work acts as a protector, or even a worshiped deity, and becomes a connection between the viewer and the piece that they can lean on for comfort. I am currently living through a transitional period between childhood and adulthood, and yearning to keep a childlike wonder alive in myself, and provoke it in others through my work.”
Watch Jess introduce their Exhibition.
