Carol Levin: An Artist's Collection in a New Light

Artist’s Reception: Saturday, May 7, 2011 from 2:30 – 4:30 p.m.

Carol Levin moved to Quogue as a full-time resident after years of shuttling between Brooklyn and Long Island’s East End.  Paintings and drawings produced over a span of thirty-plus years came out of storage, and the artist saw her work in a new light. The early abstract oils and more realistic watercolors are more closely related than she thought. This retrospective illuminates some constants throughout Carol’s art – a love of nature, a sense of order in linear patterns and organic shapes, and a balance between quiet and bold.

The artist’s creativity extends to a number of fields.  Carol has written children’s books, taught life skills to children and adults, and documented the history of the early Jewish community in Brooklyn.  She finds that experience gleaned from one discipline informs the next. Her most recent project, a book of her art, will be on display during the exhibit. The album documents more than two hundred paintings and drawings.

Carol’s career has spanned four decades.  She received a BFA in 1969 from Boston University and briefly worked in advertising design. In 1972 she had her first solo exhibition at Gallery 91 in Brooklyn.  During the following years her work was exhibited at several galleries and venues including Atlantic Gallery in Soho; the Scoville Library in Salisbury, CT; Long Island University’s Brooklyn campus; and in collections of Brooklyn College and Bristol Meyers.

Reflecting on her art Carol said, “I was one of the founding members of Gallery 91, a Brooklyn co-op that offered a solo show every eighteen months and encouraged artists to experiment in new directions. My first show featured sensual oil paintings that juxtaposed figures drawn from life-drawing studies. For the following solo exhibits, I worked from my sketches of the harbor and neighborhood scenes then later from my photos of Haiti, Greece, and the American West. In 1983 I switched to watercolor, painting from life in natural light. It was a pleasure painting the “Recipe Series” which was based on recipes from “The Joy of Cooking”. Trees figure into the majority of my work. I’ve painted in all seasons and in all shapes and sizes. In retrospect, I now know they are a life-long passion of mine. It’s not surprising that I relocated where I did, in Quogue.”

Her exhibit will be on display from May 3^rd – May 31^st.