Two shows open on Saturday, January 14, 2012 at Jonathan LeVine Gallery.
Natalia Fabia solo exhibition + Hybrid Thinking, a group exhibition curated by Marc + Sara Schiller of Wooster Collective, featuring Dal, Herakut, Hyuro, Roa, Sit and Vinz. 
For press inquiries, please contact Maléna Seldin : malena@jonathanlevinegallery.com

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Natalia Fabia
Punk Rock Rainbow Sparkle
Solo Exhibition

January 14—February 11, 2012
Opening Reception:
Saturday, January 14, 7—9pm

NEW YORK, NY (December 19, 2011) — Jonathan LeVine Gallery is pleased to present Punk Rock Rainbow Sparkle, a new series of works by Los Angeles-based artist Natalia Fabia, in what will be her highly anticipated debut solo exhibition in New York.

For her first solo show on the East Coast, Fabia chose to use the location as creative direction for her paintings and spent three months exploring the region, doing research, gathering visual materials and staging photo shoots to serve as reference imagery for her new body of work. Particularly inspired by people and places with a raw, punk sensibility, she spent time in New York City (Manhattan and Brooklyn), Philadelphia, and Asbury Park in New Jersey.

In the artist’s words: “Punk rock is one of my true loves. Punk to me is an attitude, a lifestyle. Punk is a middle finger, punk is do-it-yourself, do what you want. It’s a kind of freedom. I’m attracted to my subjects for having that quality. This attitude is what I wanted to convey in this series. My models (many of which are friends) are all tough, independent, strong, fun, hard working, talented, tattooed and stylishly dressed. I look at punk rock as being dirty and rough, yet sparkly and enticing at the same time, and that’s the theme of my paintings.”



A skilled young oil painter, Fabia selects luminous subjects with an intriguing dichotomy—adult yet innocent, strong yet vulnerable. To view her work is a voyeuristic endeavor. Lingerie-wearing vixens lounge in intimate rooms with all the comforts of home, or gather in groups for after-hour parties at dimly-lit bars. Fabia’s playfully erotic female figures are adorned with alluring details—glimmering jewelry and intricate tattoos. These confident, empowered beauties evoke burlesque and pin-up traditions. A seductive mixture of glitter and grit, they pose provocatively in the artist’s carefully arranged compositions.



Lush settings include environmental textures, elements of graffiti, iconic landmarks and other geographically specific architecture. Infused with Fabia’s signature style, vividly saturated candy color palette and dazzling spectrum of light, scenes in these paintings—like most of her work—are a combination of fantasy narratives and actual moments captured from the artist’s vibrant life, her passion for ornate fashion, nightlife and glamour with a punk rock edge.

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Natalia Fabia is of Polish descent, born in 1983 in Burbank, California, and currently based in Los Angeles. In 2007, she graduated from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Inspired by light, color, punk rock music, hot chicks and sparkles, her work has been featured in numerous gallery exhibitions and publications.
 

 


Hybrid Thinking
Group Exhibition curated by
Marc + Sara Schiller of Wooster Collective

January 14—February 11, 2012
Opening Reception:
Saturday, January 14, 7—9pm
 

NEW YORK, NY (December 13, 2011) — Jonathan LeVine Gallery is pleased to present Hybrid Thinking, a group exhibition curated by Marc + Sara Schiller of Wooster Collective, in their first curatorial since the groundbreaking 11 Spring exhibition, in December 2006.

Hybrid Thinking brings together six preeminent emerging artists from around the world and for some it will mark their first exhibition in New York. The show features work by: Dal, from Beijing, China (now based in Cape Town, South Africa); Herakut, a duo based in Frankfurt, Germany; Hyuro, from Buenos Aires, Argentina, currently based in Valencia, Spain; Roa, based in Belgium; Sit, from the Netherlands; and Vinz, born and based in Valencia, Spain.

With a wide array of discipline, medium, style and cultural influence, work by the six artists in this exhibition is thematically cohesive in its related subject matter—through figurative pairings of human and animal elements, the artists explore concepts of instinct, identity and metamorphoses. In the curators’ words: “Hybrid Thinking refers to the current zeitgeist of our time: disparate cultures coming together to create something completely new. Though from distinctly different cultural backgrounds, these artists share an understanding of our cities, of the human condition and our complex relationship with nature.”    

ABOUT THE ARTISTS
DAL was born in Beijing, China in 1984 and is currently based in Cape Town, South Africa. He studied sculpture at the Institute of Fine Arts. The tactile quality of his three-dimensional work is complimented by the gestural approach and ribbon-like structure of forms in his works on canvas.

Herakut is the collaboration between Hera and Akut, a duo based in Frankfurt, Germany. Their work, in itself, is a hybrid of two styles. Hera’s traditional art training combined with Akut’s years of graffiti experience results in an intriguing combination of organic line and form.

Hyuro, born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1974, is currently based in Valencia, Spain. She has an art degree from Escuela Nacional Manuel Belgrano in Buenos Aires, and a Master degree from Politecnic University in Valencia. Her black and white imagery is striking in its poetic simplicity yet rich in existential concepts, the work translates gracefully from canvas to mural form.

Roa is based in Ghent, Belgium. His large-scale black and white murals of animals can be found in cities throughout Europe and the US. His gallery work is often painted on multiple panels or objects, echoing the effect and imaginative placement of his images painted on public architecture.

Sit, born in 1976, lives and works in Amsterdam. In his NOIR series, he examines the troubled relationship between mankind and the animal kingdom through a bold black and white palette. Sensual textures of fur and feathers are rendered in dark brush strokes in contrast with pale, soft skin tones of female nude figures and the rigid bone of animal skulls.

Vinz was born in 1979 in Valencia, Spain, where he is currently based. He paints animal heads on large-scale photographs of human figures, and applies the work using wheatpaste to city walls. Taking a similar approach to his studio work, the artist collages paper ephemera into a background texture which he prints figures onto, then paints heads and other details in enamel or gouache.

ABOUT WOOSTER COLLECTIVE
Wooster Collective, founded in 2001 by Sara + Marc Schiller, showcases and celebrates ephemeral art placed on streets in cities around the world. The collective’s mission is to discover and document authentic art experiences via salons, lectures, curating gallery shows, and online at: www.woostercollective.com. In 2006, they organized one of the most significant exhibitions of street art ever at an abandoned building in downtown New York. 11 Spring was chosen by the The New York Times  as one of the top art exhibitions of the year. The Schillers have published many books and in 2010, released Trespass: A History of Uncommissioned Urban Art with Taschen. They have been featured in The New York Times, Time Magazine, Good Magazine and many others. As a global voice for street art, the Schillers have spoken at the Tate Modern, Design Indaba and The New Museum. Marc is CEO and Founder of Electric Artists, a digital brand strategy and marketing firm. Sara operates their business, Meet at the Apartment, a creative meeting space in lower Manhattan. They live in downtown New York with their daughter, Samantha, and dog, Hudson.