Raiding the Fridge for
Inspiration
By XICO GREENWALD, Special to the
Sun | January 25, 2017
Philadelphia-based artist Aubrey Levinthal (b.
1986) raids her fridge for inspiration. She repurposes her leftovers, turning
Tupperware containers packed with fruit salad and spaghetti into inventive
still lifes. Milk jugs and the condiments in the icebox are arranged into
formally rigorous compositions that show off Ms. Levinthal’s feel for paint.
Stroked, glazed, scraped and sanded, textured canvases here depict late-night
binges and bubbling lasagna.
“Refrigerator Paintings,” a little exhibit in
Chelsea now in its final days, is a breath of fresh air. Ms. Levinthal is a
student of art history, and her unpretentious canvases of everyday subjects
dialogue with modern masters, particularly School of Paris artists. Visitors
to her show will leave reassured that the great tradition of painting is
alive and well in the able hands of this millennial.
In “Microwave Mug,” 2015, the lonely light of a
microwave oven nuking coffee updates Edward Hopper’s “Nighthawks,” 1942, the
urban American noir masterpiece. Here the glow in the night comes from a
kitchen appliance, not a corner coffee shop, but both pictures capture
after-hours solitude.
In “Cereal Eater” 2016, the vantage point is
from inside the refrigerator, letting viewers peer out to what seems to be a
loose self-portrait of the artist at the open fridge door, perhaps about to
grab the last of the milk. The nearly all white picture is suffused with
refrigerator light and the roughly painted figure recalls the Art Brut
characters of Jean Dubuffet.
All but a sliver of canvas is covered over with
a white refrigerator door in “Fridge Closing,” 2016. The off-kilter design
recalls playfully lopsided compositions by Pierre Bonnard. In an artist’s
statement, Ms. Levinthal explains, “I had painted an entire composition of
food stacked to the ceiling, like it would be before a party. It was too
crowded and flat and I didn't know what to do. And then I thought, I'll zoom
out and put the door on top of the stuff.” The formula-free artworks here are
worked and reworked, each piece achieving its own unique pictorial
resolution.
Ms. Levinthal is expecting a baby in February
and papier-mâché sculptures of food displayed on shelves are labeled “Things
I Crave, Pregnant” (Pop-Tarts, soft-serve) and “Things I Can't Have,
Pregnant” (lox, beer). The artist says these sculptures are “sort of like
characters from the paintings.”
Though the artworks here are fun, even funny,
Ms. Levinthal’s achievement is profound. After all, translating the human
experience into compelling works of art is what painting has always been all
about.
Aubrey Levinthal: Refrigerator Paintings,
on view through January 28, 2017, The Painting Center, 547 West 27th Street,
Suite 500, New York, NY, 212-343-1060, www.thepaintingcenter.org
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