Arik Levy – Transition of Balance
Galerie Scheffel
17 May 2024 - 20 July 2024

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Galerie Scheffel is pleased to announce “Transition of Balance”, a solo exhibition with recent works by Arik Levy. The exhibition can be seen from 17 May to 20 July 2024.

The opening of the exhibition will take place on Thursday, 16 May 2024 at 7pm in the presence of the artist in the Bad Homburg gallery rooms (Ferdinandstr. 19, 61348 Bad Homburg v.d.Höhe).

Arik Levy is best known in the international art world for his unmistakable sculptures and installations. Starting with his abstract "Rocks" with their faceted surfaces, Levy has created an independent sculptural vocabulary of forms, which he differentiates and constantly develops in varying series of works. His titling system refers to the respective variant of the composition, usually supplemented by a number to indicate the height. With technical precision, he explores the variety of possible variations in his imaginary mineral world – with a view to form, balance, surface design, material and size.

However, Arik Levy's works are never pure formal experiments, but always also approaches to contexts in which human beings are involved. They are inspired by the artist's preoccupation with the spatio-temporal dimension of the sculptural, but also by observations in the border areas between the natural sciences and philosophy, human emotions and social issues. Thus, for example, the balance relationships in the works can always allude to physical, mental or emotional balance, to questions of equilibrium in nature or society. The artistically balanced formal inventions activate the senses and the mind in equal measure and are open to individual perceptual experiences.

Levy's works evoke metaphors of natural growth structures and yet are made of Corten steel, polished, painted or powder-coated stainless steel, bronze or glass. His "Rocks" – whether individually as "RockStones" or slender, cypress-like "RockTrees", or fused together (RockFusion), arranged in varying formations (RockFormation) or piled on top of each other balancing in different equilibrium relationships (RockTower) – offer observers an inexhaustible sequence of individual views as they walk around them. At the same time, the play of light and shadow on the facetted design of their surfaces reinforces the impression of movement and change.

This perception is further intensified in Levy's characteristic creations in special high-quality and mirror-polished stainless steel: here, the surroundings seem to merge with the works, and the reflections – depending on the viewer's movement – combine to create ever new detailed views and pictorial compositions.

Arik Levy's mature sculptural language is also expressed in the works of his stand-alone series – such as his "Craters" with their varied circumscriptions of space, or in the works of the "Ghost" series, whose organic-looking lamellae emanate in a circle from an inner core. In a formal variation on the "Rocks", on the other hand, the surfaces of the small-format sculptures entitled "SocialSkin" describe the simple basic shape of a house – and incorporate mirror images of the surroundings and the viewer.

Arik Levy, born in Tel Aviv in 1963, took part in his first group sculpture exhibition in Tel Aviv in 1986 before beginning his studies at the Art Center (Europe) in Switzerland, from which he graduated in 1991. After a subsequent working stay in Japan, he opened his studio in Paris in 1992. Since then, his distinctive sculptures and installations have been shown in solo and group exhibitions worldwide – in numerous European countries as well as in the USA, Australia and New Zealand, Turkey and Israel, China, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan.

In 2009, Arik Levy received one of the highest cultural honours of his adopted country, France, when he was appointed "Chevalier de l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres de la République française" (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters of the French Republic). Today, Levy lives and works in the South of France and his works form part of renowned international public and private collections of contemporary art.

In Germany, outdoor sculptures by Arik Levy were last on display at the Blickachsen sculpture biennial (2019, 2023) and in the solo show "UrbanForest" at the Skulpturenpark Eschborn (2022), while the exhibition "MineralForest" (2021) in the Jakobshallen of Galerie Scheffel provided a representative insight into Arik Levy's sculptural oeuvre with around 60 works.

The exhibition "Arik Levy – Transition of Balance" now focuses on recent works by the Israeli-born artist: sculptures in various formats and materials from different series of his work as well as paintings on wood or canvas entitled "MultiColorFacet".

The exhibition is open Tuesdays to Fridays from 2 to 7pm and Saturdays from 11am to 3pm (Galerie Scheffel, Ferdinandstraße 19, 61348 Bad Homburg v.d.Höhe, Germany, www.galerie-scheffel.com).

We are happy to provide press photos free of charge.

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