“Pop to Present” at Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University

by Ekaterina Levina

“Pop to Present” is a bright and exciting exhibit. I envy people who are not familiar with the permanent museum collection and would discover all these wonderful art works at the show.
I go to this museum at least once at month for a number of reasons: the collection is great, the new exhibits are original, the admission is free and the Rodin garden is always a visual pleasure. I’ve seen at least 90% of art works presented at the show before.

Even for me, there was one surprise that made my day! It was a painting of a sitting woman with one hand around her head by Richard Diebenkorn. I read the name of the artist on a title card and exclaimed to myself: “Of course, who else!” That level of abstraction of the figure, that angular pose, that “ocean” blue, that California air, that poetry!

This beautiful painting was the “Mona Lisa” of the show. I was puzzled that I couldn’t remember this image from art books or from the museum collection. This is definitely the image that museum postcard and posters are made of. Anyway, I was really happy to see this beautiful work of art.

Being a nice museum visitor and fairly judging the number of security guards around I asked a permission to take pictures. It was granted.
I looked around the exhibit taking notes of my favorites. Then I walked straight to Diebenkorn and started taking pictures. To my surprise the same security guard who answered my question about taking pictures came to me and said: “Excuse me, but this is the only painting which isn’t allowed for taking pictures. It’s the order from the curator. I’m sorry.”

Intriguing. I looked again at the title card which said that “this painting is not yet formally accessioned into the collection.” It’s a promised gift from a private collection.
It would be wonderful to see this painting in the permanent museum collection.

Once again I fell in love with Diebenkorn.

Where is contemporary art going?

2008 SECA Art Award exhibit

by Ekaterina Levina

The 2008 SECA (Society for the Encouragement of Contemporary Art) Art Award exhibit at SFMoMA promised to show new directions of contemporary art in Bay Area.

There were no surprises at the show. Social statements and political issues are as big as ever, and geometrical and symbolical abstraction is still in favor.

What is regrettable is that art presented at the museum is going as far away from working from life as possible. It looks like nobody cares about human emotions, about joys and sorrows of life, and their personal interpretations.

The exhibit had an intellectual and dry feel. Everything was digested from mass media - TV shows, political news, newspapers. Nothing came from artists’ personal experiences and hearts.
There were five or six oil paintings at the show, but they were very obviously painted from photographs.

I blame curators for the general boredom of the exhibit. What’s the point to select art which gives the impression of being made by one person? New directions shouldn’t look like one sterile anonymous picture.

A creative justice art exhibit “Those Without Voices” at USF School of Law

“On Your Own”.

A poetry reading at the reception.

by Ekaterina Levina

Yesterday I saw a couple of ravens picking fuzzy balls of wool on a sidewalk for their nest. It’s spring… I was on my way to the Legion of Honor Museum to take some pictures of paintings for my Art History term paper. I’ll tell more about this paper ordeal sometime in May.

Last month my painting “On Your Own” was accepted for the creative justice art exhibit “Those Without Voices” at USF School of Law. The show benefited The Forgotten International: Finding, Helping & Bringing Hope to Forgotten People Worldwide.

http://theforgottenintl.org/

This is my description of the painting for the show:

“The painting expresses fear of losing the ground under feet.
In the current financial situation people are losing their houses, jobs, places to live.
It’s about fear of the future in the turmoil of an economical crisis.
Would my house, my world, be able to keep its ground?
There are real people behind numbers reflecting the downfall of the economy”.

A couple of my friend came to the reception, and I met a few artists that I knew there. The reception was fun – a nice band played, poetry readings were exciting and the art was inspirational.
Lawyers ARE wealthy, so the food was fabulous. One of my friends couldn’t leave the buffet for the whole time.

The Asian Art Museum exhibit “The Dragon's Gift: The Sacred Arts of Bhutan”

Two monks from a Bhutanese monastery perform daily purification rituals and prayers for sacred objects in the exhibition.

A sand mandala.

The Buddha Vajrasattva, 1300-1600.

by Ekaterina Levina

I visited the Asian Art Museum to see the exhibit dedicated to the Buddhist art of Bhutan.
Bhutan is a country located east of Mount Everest and bordered by India and Tibet.

The exhibit consists of religious objects, mostly Buddha sculptures and mandala paintings, which are still used in temple and monastery rituals.

The Buddahs were amazing. Some of them were small, about 10-12”, glowing with gold and intricate jewelry details. Some were bigger bronze sculptures.

All Buddhas had their usual serene face expressions, but at the same time they had different human personalities and characters. They are real masterpieces. With graceful lines and expressive gestures they give a feeling of the ancient time and life. Somehow they look very human and approachable.

I loved a wonderful sculpture which showed an embrace of the Buddha and the Goddess.

A bit of a coffee shop life

by Ekaterina Levina

A few days ago I stayed late in a coffee shop. The café have local bands playing almost every night at 8 pm. I like some, I hate others. There is a schedule of performances on a door.

Around 9 pm a local musician came to play piano. He’s not listed in the schedule, and I don’t know his name. He comes to play when the mood strikes. He’s about 40, has expressive almost ugly features and long hands.
He’s my favorite pianist. I always stop doing whatever I’m doing and listen to him.
He plays classical music. He never fails to move me in some way. His piano makes beautiful, rich, velvet sound and the music is soulful.

So he played, I enjoyed and when it was my time to leave, I had this conversation with a barista:

- I LOVE how this guy plays!
- Yeah… Too bad he has a mental problem.
- ???
- He’s on medication. Sometimes he gets really gloomy and doesn’t notice anything around. I had to remind him to stop playing and to leave like five minutes before we closed, and he gave me such a look!
He’s a bit weird.
- Aren’t we all? I’m used to weird people in art.
- True…

My submission for a juried show “Beyond Warhol's Imagination” at The Art Institute of California - San Francisco

"Pocket Therapist"

"Pocket Therapist" back

"The Martian"

by Ekaterina Levina

This is a submission for the de Young Satellite Exhibition. Same theme, different place.
The college night show at the de Young would last only one evening, when the show at thw Art Institute of California would last for about two weeks. Both shows have the same curator from the museum.
Here are my explanations for this submission:

“Pocket Therapist”

Pop Psychology has become a modern day commodity. We consume magazines, talk-shows, numerous self-help books dedicated to the subject of what we want/need/have to know about a state of our mind.
I distilled three the most common recommendations from casual conversations I’ve had with my friend, a practicing psychiatrist:
- It’s not your fault.
- Put yourself first.
- You have a choice.
I made a portable “therapist” to keep “in a pocket”.
It’s possible to blow out a single image and multiply it, so it becomes something giant to get our attention.
I use a reverse method of converting a complex idea to a size of a pocketbook.

“The Martian”

A fragment of a picture of a stranger I met in a café and a magnolia flowering in my neighborhood combined together became something from another planet.
A flower could have a gloomy mood to the point of becoming an alien.
One way to bring attention to regular objects is using high saturation images multiplied in different arrangements.
Instead, I use a small scale combination of familiar things to bring out their new otherworldly possibilities.

My submission for a juried show at the De Young Museum

Found object sculpture "Love Game"

Painting "California Boys"

by Ekaterina Levina

Sometimes it’s necessary to put in writing the meaning of an art work. Especially, when it’s required by rules of an art competition.
It’s easy to do for new paintings, and not so easy when something was done a year or more ago. I look at my last year painting and try to remember, what the hell did I mean doing this?
I remember the feeling of some kind of great and exciting idea that I had at that time…
But what was it exactly? Trust me; it isn’t that easy for the artist to remember.
I submitted two things for the college night event “Warhol: Now and Then” at the de Young Museum. They asked artists to describe how their art works are related to the theme.
Here are my explanations for the submission:

“Love Game”.

In this found object sculpture the playful repetition of card contrasts with a straight order of chess pieces.
The heart shape from a card jumped under a screwed chess board, while chess figures play a game and support a tin box stage.
The common objects play familiar roles in new unexpected ways.

“California Boys”

I took pictures of my friends from my neighborhood to make this collage.
In my mind, all of them are celebrities in a small local way. Every person in this picture could recognize others.
For viewers, who are not familiar with this crowd, they represent an image of people living today and give an idea of a colorful, all-accepting and sparkling California attitude.
This snapshot of local celebrities of my world is a portrait of our moment in life.