|
Ms. Levy's sculpture was first exhibited at McMurtrey gallery during ArtHouston 2002. This is her first solo exhibition at the gallery.
Ms. Levy studied metalsmithing at the Oregon School of Arts and Crafts and received her B.F.A. in Art from the University of Texas, Austin. In an attempt to balance motherhood and her career as an artist, Ms. Levy began working with wire and buttons in 1991, after the birth of her first child. Finding she could hardly fire up her torch before having to put it down to attend to the the baby, metalsmithing was no longer a feasible option.
With Ms. Levy's experience in metalsmithing and knitting, and the fondness she acquired for buttons while playing in her great grandmother's button box as a yound child, it seems quite fitting that she would create wire and button sculptures, using materials and processes that were altogether familiar. Despite her use of items of domesticity, namely buttons, Ms. Levy's sculptures are anything but ordinary. Her creations include the unexpected; animal-like forms and figures without heads, donut shaped pieces, a dress form with colored bulbs tucked away inside.
 |
|
The apparent obsessiveness with which Ms. Levy creates her sculptures is evident in the feeling of containment created by the forms of tightly woven buttons. "Yap" gives a sense of not only containment, but also danger. With pencils protruding from either end, sharpened points exposed, the pink bestial figure is both menacing and playful.
Whether the pieces are wall hanging, suspended from the ceiling, or freestanding, Ms. Levy delivers a powerful body of small-scale sculptures that exhibit her talent as a three-dimensional multimedia artist.
Ms. Levy's sculpture has been included in numerous exhibitions throughout Texas and the United States, including prominent exhibits at the Southwest Craft Center in San Antonio, Texas and at the Dahl Art Center in Rapid City, South Dakota. Ms. Levy lives and works in Austin, Texas.
|
|
 Lauren Levy 2004 Bio
|
