"Life is pretty much just an estate sale waiting to happen"
“Life is pretty much just an estate sale waiting to happen,” says Tobin Levy, when discussing the origins of the work in her new show, Ways of Seeing: Inside the Memory Room.
Levy’s whimsical chimera sculptures are amalgamations of found ceramic dolls and animal figurines. “I imagine them spending decades as truly beloved objects and then ending up in a two-dollar bin.” Their value is not lost to Levy, who rescues, recontextualizes, and, ultimately, anthropomorphizes these creations. Using supplemental colors and handmade sculptural addenda, she creates narratives of belonging, infusing discarded keepsakes with giddy esteem and transforming them into original works of art.
In addition to wall sculptures, Levy presents a growing body of photographic prints on metal, many of which have been augmented with acrylic paint or collage elements. They represent a visual diary that chronicles nearly a decade of encounters with art, nature, street pigeons, and more. Ecstatic moments have been distilled and, in some cases distorted, in her most personal works to date, which double as a kind of tribute to her mother, artist (and “recovering art dealer”) Rebecca Cohen.
“Some of my earliest memories are of my mother dragging me and my sisters to museums and asking each of us, ‘what’s your favorite piece and why?’”
“Some of my earliest memories are of my mother dragging me and my sisters to museums and asking each of us, ‘what’s your favorite piece and why?’” recalls Levy. “She always prefaced the question with assurances that there was not a ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answer. We could have pointed to a fire hydrant and said, ‘I love the shape’ and she would have been thrilled,” continues Levy. “She was simply teaching us to take a closer look at our surroundings. It wasn’t until I got older that I realized what a gift that was.”
Levy also attributes her penchant for repurposing to Cohen, a lifelong collector of unorthodox bibelots, such as discarded doll parts, desiccated lizards, and vacated birds’ eggs. Their shared attraction to tattered dolls, specifically, is apparent in Cohen’s “Two Old Friends,” a photopolymer print with chine collé, included in this exhibition.
Over the years, Levy and her mother have embarked on art pilgrimages to Venice, Berlin, Paris, New York, London and more, exposing Levy to the work of hundreds of artists, who expanded her vision and informed her own creations. “That, too, has been such a gift, one that I’m hoping to pay forward, in a way, with these photographs.”
“A lot of these pictures include fragments of work by other artists that I found particularly compelling. I wanted to reinforce their indelible impact on me.” Levy writes the name of each artist referenced and, when possible, the specific work captured, on the back of the corresponding image.
“My hope is that it will inspire at least some viewers to look up the artist and his or her work, while providing context for my own.”
“Some of my earliest memories are of my mother dragging me and my sisters to museums and asking each of us, ‘what’s your favorite piece and why?’” recalls Levy. “She always prefaced the question with assurances that there was not a ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answer. We could have pointed to a fire hydrant and said, ‘I love the shape’ and she would have been thrilled,” continues Levy. “She was simply teaching us to take a closer look at our surroundings. It wasn’t until I got older that I realized what a gift that was.”
Levy also attributes her penchant for repurposing to Cohen, a lifelong collector of unorthodox bibelots, such as discarded doll parts, desiccated lizards, and vacated birds’ eggs. Their shared attraction to tattered dolls, specifically, is apparent in Cohen’s “Two Old Friends,” a photopolymer print with chine collé, included in this exhibition.
Over the years, Levy and her mother have embarked on art pilgrimages to Venice, Berlin, Paris, New York, London and more, exposing Levy to the work of hundreds of artists, who expanded her vision and informed her own creations. “That, too, has been such a gift, one that I’m hoping to pay forward, in a way, with these photographs.”
“A lot of these pictures include fragments of work by other artists that I found particularly compelling. I wanted to reinforce their indelible impact on me.” Levy writes the name of each artist referenced and, when possible, the specific work captured, on the back of the corresponding image.
“My hope is that it will inspire at least some viewers to look up the artist and his or her work, while providing context for my own.”
