ISAAC LEVENTER

Isaac Leventer has produced a wealth of art in mediums as diverse as sculpture and paintings, using new styles and techniques for each. Isaac’s works displays the relationship between art, life and history.

He combines two-dimensional painting and three-dimensional sculpture in his contruction, including objects of everyday human existence as diverse as newspapers, glass, nails, pipes, flowers, feaders, and/or wood.

Isaac developed new ideas as he progressed, changing colors for each new series. In a solo exhibit, at the Latino Art Museum, Ontario Center Outreach, he produced a series of paintings and body sculptures in all brown and gold. Isaac opened the deep toned brown surface to reveal unpainted scraps of objects in the middle of the collage components that formed the background.

The support and surface, which Isaac constructed himself out of woodscrap including the frame as a part of the painting. Always the practical one, Isaac saw the “readymade” support and art work itself as a quick and reliable solution to replace the traditional canvas.

The paintings and sculptures all contain elements bearing autobiographical, art-historical, and mass-media references. Each element-painted or applied; retains its individual character. All of Isaac’s signature motifs are present in his art work.

I found delight in the fact that this exhibition, which is a perfect example of Isaac’s gift for imagination as well as his ability to construct aesthetic harmony out of materials from the everyday world, will once again be in public view, reminding us that his art work extends the limits of what artwork could be.

 

Graciela H. Nardi

Director