Dan Levenson Work | Artist Statement & CV | Return to Artist List
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Artist Statement
Little Switzerland is a long-term multidisciplinary project which explores a range of questions about the making of art and artists. It begins with a fictional narrative about an art gallery called Little Switzerland. This gallery was founded in the mid-1990s by an idealistic group of recent graduates from the State Art Academy Zurich. I use Switzerland as a metaphor for the society in which artists live. Little Switzerland is allegorical so I treat both time and place with a great deal of license.
The project is centered on painting. It allows me to experiment with the ways in which framing, context and presentation can affect a work of art. I also explore the ways in which paintings are affected by the stories surrounding them. It is important to me that the viewer be aware that the stories I tell are fictions. Little Switzerland is never meant to be a hoax. A hoax collapses back into the duality of true/false in the instant that it is uncovered.
The project is too expansive to be represented all at once. In exhibitions I have created installations which either represented a discrete moment from this fictional history or Little Switzerland in a more abstracted form. This past year I have begun work on an installation which tells the story of the fictional art school from which all the artists in this story emerged. I began with a series of sculptural “Student Painting Storage Cabinets” supposedly taken from the art school. I have begun filling these cabinets with “Student Painting Exercises” meant to address formal concerns such as color, composition, scale and pattern. I have also begun experimenting with video as a means of telling fragments of this story. By using installation and video as framing devices, I hope to expand on a project that questions the ways in which context and narrative affect our experience of art.
Little Switzerland is a long-term multidisciplinary project which explores a range of questions about the making of art and artists. It begins with a fictional narrative about an art gallery called Little Switzerland. This gallery was founded in the mid-1990s by an idealistic group of recent graduates from the State Art Academy Zurich. I use Switzerland as a metaphor for the society in which artists live. Little Switzerland is allegorical so I treat both time and place with a great deal of license.
The project is centered on painting. It allows me to experiment with the ways in which framing, context and presentation can affect a work of art. I also explore the ways in which paintings are affected by the stories surrounding them. It is important to me that the viewer be aware that the stories I tell are fictions. Little Switzerland is never meant to be a hoax. A hoax collapses back into the duality of true/false in the instant that it is uncovered.
The project is too expansive to be represented all at once. In exhibitions I have created installations which either represented a discrete moment from this fictional history or Little Switzerland in a more abstracted form. This past year I have begun work on an installation which tells the story of the fictional art school from which all the artists in this story emerged. I began with a series of sculptural “Student Painting Storage Cabinets” supposedly taken from the art school. I have begun filling these cabinets with “Student Painting Exercises” meant to address formal concerns such as color, composition, scale and pattern. I have also begun experimenting with video as a means of telling fragments of this story. By using installation and video as framing devices, I hope to expand on a project that questions the ways in which context and narrative affect our experience of art.
CV
solo exhibitions -
2008 - Anonymous Paintings from the Archives of Little Switzerland, USF, Bergen, Norway -
2003 - White Room, White Columns, NY - curated by Lauren Ross -
selected group exhibitions -
2011 - I Like The Art World And The Art World Likes Me - EFA Project Space - NY -
2010 - Sanctioned Array - White Box - NY -
2010 - I Know What You Did Last Summer - St. Cecilia’s Convent - Brooklyn, NY -
2009 - Nothing Up My Sleeve - PARTICIPANT, INC. NY - curated by Jonathan Berger -
2009 - CAM, Visningsrommet USF, Norway. Curated by Arne Skaug Olsen -
2008 - Disarmory - organized by dBfoundation -
2008 - Geometric, Abstract, and Geometric Abstraction - Jason Rulnick, NY -
2007 - The All-Smoking Art Opening - Sponsored by Altria - New General Catalog, Brooklyn, NY -
curated by Trong G. Nguyen -
2007 - Horizon - EFA Gallery - New York, NY - curated by David Humphrey -
2007 - The Promise of Freshness - with Daniel Argyle - Peloton, Sydney - Dudespace, Melbourne, Australia -
2006 - Recent Acquisitions - Jason Rulnick Fine Art - New York, NY -
2006 - Cremaster Fanatic - Jack the Pelican, Brooklyn, NY/ BOCA, San Francisco - curated by Eric Doeringer -
2004 - From New York with Love, Covivant Gallery, Tampa, FL - curated by Trong G. Nguyen -
2003 - Terrarium, The Bronx River Arts Center, Bronx, NY - curated by Carl Eckhoff -
2003 - Good Words and Credentials, Columbia University, NY -
curated by Bethany Pappalardo, Holly Greenfield and Barb Choit
awards and residencies -
MacDowell Fellowship - 2011 -
Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture - 2009 -
Triangle Artists’ Workshop, Brooklyn, NY 2008 -
Artist-in Residence, USF, Bergen Norway, 2008 -
Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, 2007 -
NYFA Fiscal Sponsorship, 2007 -
Elizabeth Foundation Studio, 2004 - ongoing -
Yaddo Fellowships, 2006, 2004, 2001, 2000 -
P.S. 122 project studio, 2003 -
publications -
Nothing Up My Sleeve, Regency Arts Press and PARTICIPANT INC, 2010 -
Shifter Magazine, Vol. 16, Pluripotential, Design, Layout and “A Note On the Type” April, 2010 -
education -
M.F.A. painting, Royal College of Art, London - 1997
B.A. studio art/art history, Oberlin College - 1994
selected bibliography -
Rachel Wetzler, “A Populist Attack on the Art World Pulls Punches” Hyperallergic, March 2011
Michelle Levy , “Virtues of Smoke and Mirrors” ArtSlant, November 2009
Donato Ramani, “Imaginary Road to Little Switzerland” L’Uomo Vogue, July 2009
Daisuke Nishimura, We Love Artists: Artists in Residence Around the World, October 2009
Paul Flannery, “Expandable and modular - Little Switzerland on a scale of 1 to 1” January 21st, 2008
Paddy Johnson, “Form and Enterprise: The Art of Dan Levenson” ArtCal Zine, January 16, 2008
James Wagner, “Dan Levenson’s “Little Switzerland” at EFA” jameswagner.com, November 13, 2007
Shifter: Rules & Representations - http://www.shifter-magazine.com/Shifter8at120dpi.pdf, June 1, 2006
Carol Vogel, “What is the Value of Priceless Art?” The New York Times, Nov. 18, 2004
solo exhibitions -
2008 - Anonymous Paintings from the Archives of Little Switzerland, USF, Bergen, Norway -
2003 - White Room, White Columns, NY - curated by Lauren Ross -
selected group exhibitions -
2011 - I Like The Art World And The Art World Likes Me - EFA Project Space - NY -
2010 - Sanctioned Array - White Box - NY -
2010 - I Know What You Did Last Summer - St. Cecilia’s Convent - Brooklyn, NY -
2009 - Nothing Up My Sleeve - PARTICIPANT, INC. NY - curated by Jonathan Berger -
2009 - CAM, Visningsrommet USF, Norway. Curated by Arne Skaug Olsen -
2008 - Disarmory - organized by dBfoundation -
2008 - Geometric, Abstract, and Geometric Abstraction - Jason Rulnick, NY -
2007 - The All-Smoking Art Opening - Sponsored by Altria - New General Catalog, Brooklyn, NY -
curated by Trong G. Nguyen -
2007 - Horizon - EFA Gallery - New York, NY - curated by David Humphrey -
2007 - The Promise of Freshness - with Daniel Argyle - Peloton, Sydney - Dudespace, Melbourne, Australia -
2006 - Recent Acquisitions - Jason Rulnick Fine Art - New York, NY -
2006 - Cremaster Fanatic - Jack the Pelican, Brooklyn, NY/ BOCA, San Francisco - curated by Eric Doeringer -
2004 - From New York with Love, Covivant Gallery, Tampa, FL - curated by Trong G. Nguyen -
2003 - Terrarium, The Bronx River Arts Center, Bronx, NY - curated by Carl Eckhoff -
2003 - Good Words and Credentials, Columbia University, NY -
curated by Bethany Pappalardo, Holly Greenfield and Barb Choit
awards and residencies -
MacDowell Fellowship - 2011 -
Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture - 2009 -
Triangle Artists’ Workshop, Brooklyn, NY 2008 -
Artist-in Residence, USF, Bergen Norway, 2008 -
Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, 2007 -
NYFA Fiscal Sponsorship, 2007 -
Elizabeth Foundation Studio, 2004 - ongoing -
Yaddo Fellowships, 2006, 2004, 2001, 2000 -
P.S. 122 project studio, 2003 -
publications -
Nothing Up My Sleeve, Regency Arts Press and PARTICIPANT INC, 2010 -
Shifter Magazine, Vol. 16, Pluripotential, Design, Layout and “A Note On the Type” April, 2010 -
education -
M.F.A. painting, Royal College of Art, London - 1997
B.A. studio art/art history, Oberlin College - 1994
selected bibliography -
Rachel Wetzler, “A Populist Attack on the Art World Pulls Punches” Hyperallergic, March 2011
Michelle Levy , “Virtues of Smoke and Mirrors” ArtSlant, November 2009
Donato Ramani, “Imaginary Road to Little Switzerland” L’Uomo Vogue, July 2009
Daisuke Nishimura, We Love Artists: Artists in Residence Around the World, October 2009
Paul Flannery, “Expandable and modular - Little Switzerland on a scale of 1 to 1” January 21st, 2008
Paddy Johnson, “Form and Enterprise: The Art of Dan Levenson” ArtCal Zine, January 16, 2008
James Wagner, “Dan Levenson’s “Little Switzerland” at EFA” jameswagner.com, November 13, 2007
Shifter: Rules & Representations - http://www.shifter-magazine.com/Shifter8at120dpi.pdf, June 1, 2006
Carol Vogel, “What is the Value of Priceless Art?” The New York Times, Nov. 18, 2004
Little Switzerland Berlin Office. Installation view. PARTICIPANT INC. 2009.
Little Switzerland Berlin Office. Installation view showing items on reception desk. PARTICIPANT INC. 2009.
"Professional Art Gallery Assistant's Handbook" Lithograph on paper. Installation view. PARTICIPANT INC. 2009.
"Letzte Zigarette" Silkscreen on cardstock with cigarettes. Installation view. PARTICIPANT INC. 2009.
"Swiss Standard Paintings Boxes" Silkscreen on cardboard. 36" x 36" x 6" each. Each contains 6 drip paintings. Installation view. PARTICIPANT INC. 2009.
Swiss Standard Drip Painting. Enamel on Linen. 30" x 30" 2008.
A Young Swiss Artist In His Studio. C-Print. 8" x 10" 2010.
"Die Erste Die Beste Letzte (The First The Best The Last)" Cigarette Advertisement in Fresco. 33" x 24" 2009.
Anonymous Paintings From The Archives Of Little Switzerland. Installation view at USF Bergen Norway. Oil on canvas paintings. Acrylic wall painting and text.
Detail view of Anonymous Paintings From The Archives Of Little Switzerland. Installation view at USF Bergen Norway. Oil on canvas paintings. Acrylic wall painting and text.
Fernseher (Television). Installation at Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts. 2011. Silkscreen on cardboard Swiss Standard Art Gallery Binder Boxes. Television and electronics.
Fernseher (Television). Installation at Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts. 2011. Silkscreen on cardboard Swiss Standard Art Gallery Binder Boxes. Television and electronics.
"New Swiss Art" Installation and Performance at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts. 2006.
"New Swiss Art" Installation and Performance at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts. 2006.
"New Swiss Art" Installation and Performance at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts. 2006.
Poster design for the fictional State Art Academy Zurich.
Student Painting Storage Cabinets to hold paintings in 2A0, A0 and A1 sizes. Plywood paint and casters. 2010.
Small Student Painting Storage Box with Student Pattern Study. Oil on Linen. A3 size. 2010.
Student Color Study. Oil on Linen. A3 size (16.5 x 11.7 in). 2010.
Student Monochrome Assignment. Oil on Linen. A1 size (33.1 x 23.4 in). 2011.