ARTIST

 

Silvia Levenson

I explore daily interpersonal relationships through installations and objects that state firmly what is usually felt or whispered. My work is centralized on this unspeakable space, which is oftentimes so small, located between what we can see and what we feel. I use glass to reveal those things that are normally hidden. 

 

I believe that there are no neutral materials; in my work I mainly use glass because I am fascinated by its ambiguity. It is a material that we all know well because it protects and isolates our homes, we use it to preserve our foods and beverages but in some ways we also know that it is fragile, that it can break into thousands of tiny pieces and hurt us. For my work it becomes the ideal material to show the ambiguity of human relationships and of the things that exist but that hide behind the thousand folds of what we call reality.

 

Furthermore, as Tina Olkdown noted, “women's works, such as cooking and crafts, is often sarcastically described as product of “Loving Hands at Home” and it is considered the antithesis of male-dominated “High Art”. I use a very traditional, hand-crafted material to describe not what we put on top of our furniture but what we carefully hide under our rugs.


Education & Teaching (Selected)

1974-1976Martin Garcia Graphic School, Buenos Aires, Argentina
1990-2018Working as Indipendent Artist
1998-2018Teaching Workshops in Pilchuck Glass School, Bullseye Glass Co, North Lands Creative, Scotland, Studio of Corning Glass Museum, Toyama Glass Institute, etc


Awards / Grants (Selected)

2018Wilson Conference “ Who in The World Am I?”, GAS Conference, Murano, Italy
2016Glass in Venice Award, Istituto Veneto, Venice, Italy
2015Artist in Residence, Berlin Glass
2014Artist in Residence, Sunderland University, UK
2009Visiting Artist, Australia University(ANU), Canberra, Australia
2008Finalist, Bombay Saphire Prize
2005Artist in Residence, Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, USA
2004Rakow Commission Award Recipient, Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, USA
1998Artist in Residence, Bullseye Co., USA
1996Artist in Residence, Musée Atelier de Verre, Sars Poteries, France
1995Artist in Residence, Bullseye Co., USA 


Exhibitions (Selected)

2016Interior Voices, National Glass Center, Sunderland, UK 
Missing Identity, Glass Museum, Venice, Italy
2015Identity, American University Museum, Washington DC,USA 
“Who in The World Am I?”, Lorch-Seidel Gallery, Berlin, Germany 
Without Camouflage, Museum of Craft and Design, San Francisco, USA 
2014A Subject to Avoid, David Richard Gallery, Santa Fé, New Mexico, USA 
The Secret Order, Bullseye Gallery, Portland, OR, USA 
Without Camouflage, David Owsley Museum of Art, Ball State University, USA
2007Happy Forever, Caterina Tognon, Venice, Italy


Collections (Selected)

Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung, Munich, Germany 
Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, USA (Rakow Commision) 
Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, USA 
David Owsley Museum, Ball State University, USA 
Fine Art Museum, Houston, USA 
Fondazione Banca San Gottardo, Italy 
Mineapolis Institute for Arts, Mineapolis, USA 
Mint Museum, Charlotte, USA 
Musée du Verre Sars Poteries, France 
Glass Museum, Murano, Venice, Italy 
Sforzesco Castle, Milan, Italy 
National Glass Center, Sunderland, UK 
New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fè, USA 
Racine Art Museum, Wisconsin, USA 
The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, USA