6 April 2007
Lucy Levene shows new body of work at Aftermodern LLC, San Francisco CA
Aftermodern LLC, a fine art gallery in San Francisco's SoMa/South Beach District, is dedicated to showcasing both select emerging and mid-career artists and photographers whose art uniquely probes the contemporary urban experience. The exhibitions span a broad spectrum: works whose imagery challenges one's sense of reality, pieces which reject or confront metanarratives, and pieces created by those whose critical self-awareness goes beyond modernism.
It is no surprise they decided to show Lucy Levene's new work, part of a series she started in 2001, entitled "Marrying-In (Please God By You)". This series explores the tension in the Jewish experience to maintain cultural distinctiveness while assimilating into the mainstream. In 2001, she expressed reluctance to blindly accept familial pressure to marry a "nice Jewish boy." Her new 2007 works, which continue the series after a five year pause, are more elusive and complex. Each image documents a performance taking place in a Jewish man's bedroom, where she asks him to hold hands with her, creating forced intimacy. These photos portray a multiplicity of contradictions between the ideal and the reality of marriage in a multi-cultural society. The original series by Levene was highlighted in reGeneration 50 photographers of tomorrow, published by Aperture Foundation in 2005.
Lucy Levene, who resides in London, was awarded an MA in photography by Royal College of Art, London, in 2004.
For further information, please contact:
Aftermodern
445 Bryant Street
San Francisco CA 94107
T: 415 512 7678
http://www.aftermodern.com/
