Aubrey Levinthal - Nightstand Paintings

About

Aubrey’s melancholic depictions of strange interiors focus on the home and inanimate objects in relation to the self, a topic that the artist has been developing since last March, when the first lockdown started. The shared experience of staying inside, of feeling isolated and sometimes vulnerable, of time passing slowly and of noticing our domestic environment more and more is at the centre of this new body of work.

‘Walls which once acted as barriers suddenly feel

porous. Neighbours constantly home in the apartments

across the street, phone meetings with unmade beds in

the background. The nightstand, a casual place for

personal things, becomes a character, a fixture, with

undue importance. Or maybe that unplanned space

which has been so hidden in the past is where the real

important stuff lives? I’ve suspected that before.'

- Aubrey Levinthal

For Aubrey, the bedroom - previously the most intimate space - quickly started to feel visible to the outside world. These paintings are an ode to the ordinary interiors and objects that have taken on dizzying and distorted meanings in the upside-down world we find ourselves in during these times.

Aubrey Levinthal (b. 1986, Philadelphia, PA) received an MFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA), Philadelphia, PA and a BA from The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA. She is a three-time recipient of an Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant and in 2017 was awarded a residency at Ballinglen Arts Foundation, North County Mayo, Republic of Ireland. Recent group exhibitions include Anna Zorina Gallery, NY; Heaven Gallery, Chicago; Taymour Grahne Projects, London; and Monya Rowe Gallery, NY. Levinthal’s work is included in an upcoming group exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), Boston in 2022. The artist lives and works in Philadelphia, PA and is represented by Monya Rowe Gallery, NY.