Robert Levin

Robert  Levin

Over the years I have been working on a series of pieces that have marked a departure from my studio glass work.  These began by using glass, wood, and other materials in a very basic, visceral way.  I have always felt intuitively that materials carry their own metaphors, or a resonance to a more emotional level, and have used this as a point of departure.  In these pieces, it seems important to maintain the integrity of the various materials, to let them “speak for themselves”.  Some of the pieces are largely the result of an interest in using these materials together, and in how the working process can leave its own documentation: the wood charred by the once-hot glass, showing the creative and destructive possibilities of fire within the same moment; or the ways in which materials may be bent or constricted.  I continually find certain themes emerging: with many of the pieces, the working process has involved an exploration of pressure and constraint, balance and gesture.

There is also an element of craftsmanship in these pieces that speaks of the importance of the materials themselves, as well as the importance of the hand that acts upon them.  Often the work has begun by following a fairly intuitive path dictated by a sense of form, balance, or an exploration of how forms and materials might work together.  But inevitably I see more personal themes cropping up.  So there is a sense of having a dialog with the work, of learning about some hidden aspects of my own sensibilities by having made a tangible object.  For me, this dialog is an important aspect of the exploration involved with the work.

Some pieces have been informed by other concerns which for me have connotations of constraint, including the ways in which we place limits around our own experiences.  A few of the pieces are somewhat whimsical, while others have a more serious or mystical connotation.  Some of the sculptures use the image of the bridge, perhaps as a metaphor for how we can span the gaps or walls that we create.  It also seems to me that art acts as a bridge between the invisible and the visible, between thoughts and form.  My most recent sculptures have been wall pieces that are influenced by my interest in African art, and include much more carving and the evidence of the hand & tools working on the wood.

In all of these pieces, I’ve created problems for myself to solve.  Hopefully, the pieces offer solutions to problems while at the same time raising more questions.  I want them to be ambiguous and evocative at the same time.

Rob Levin was born and raised in Baltimore and currently lives and works near Burnsville, NC.  He was formerly the Resident Glass Artist at Penland School of Crafts, and has taught in many exotic places such as Ireland, New Zealand, Rochester, Cleveland and Penland.  He has exhibited widely in the U.S., Europe, Japan, and Russia.  His work is in numerous public and private collections, including the Corning Museum of Glass, the Museum of American Glass, the Contemporary Glass Museum in Madrid, the Mint Museum, the High Museum in Atlanta, the Museum of Arts and Design in NYC, and the Ebeltoft Glasmuseum in Denmark.  He has received a Southern Arts Federation/NEA Visual Arts Fellowship, two North Carolina Arts Council Fellowships, and a NCAC Project Grant.  His work has been featured in magazines such as American Craft, New Zealand Crafts, Craft Arts International, New Glass Review, as well as in books such as An Introduction to Visual Literacy, Contemporary American Craft Art, Contemporary Glass, and Masterpieces of American Glass. He is included in Who’s Who in American Art, The Dictionary of International Biography, and Who’s Who in America.   He describes his work as “sort of a blend of Late Venetian and Early Neurotic.”

If you are interested in learning more or purchasing a piece of Robert Levin’s artwork, please contact Sara McDonnell at Art Makers, artmakers.com/contact.