Exhibition Dates: October 1 – 30, 2010
Opening Reception: First Friday Gallery Walk, October 1, 6-10pm

(Visual Art/Textile)
Location: Artspace, Upfront Gallery

In this exhibition Alice Engel Levinson offers her first work since a two-year hiatus, following the loss by fire of her home and studio.  In this new work Levinson affirms her commitment to textile as a medium, and stitch construction as the process, while demonstrating her movement further ‘off the wall’ toward the structural and sculptural. The movement and curvilinear motifs characteristic of her work have been freed as Levinson uses negative space as a primary compositional imperative.  As in her prior work, process and content are linked.  These works are studies in the implications of loss and losing, and of honoring what was, in order to move forward.

Levinson is primarly a self-taught artist.  In 2000, she left her career of twenty-five years as a clinical psychologist to pursue work with textiles.  In creating nontraditional cloth constructions, Levinson employs a broad range of surface design processes, emphasizing layering of color and texture, movement, and intuitive process. Her work has been included in numerous juried exhibits throughout the Eastern US, California, and Oregon, as well as in Israel.  Her work is in numerous private and institutional collections, including The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Hillel Foundation.  In addition to her personal creative work, Levinson is active as an arts advocate, supporting the work of artists and arts institutions in Orange County.  She is particularly active in efforts to increase opportunities and funding for arts in the schools and for public art.