Semi-organic, semi-synthetic sculptural objects mutate and grow in a shimmering exploration of interconnectedness at Please Do Not Enter in Los Angeles. Intimate Formations is Arik Levy‘s invitation to consider what he calls “genetic intimacy”, with 25 works that oscillate between the recognisably natural (using as their inspiration the structures of biological cells and rock formations) and the calculated engineering of their man-made materiality.
Israeli-born, Paris-based Levy begins his collection with the boldest statement. RockGrowth350 is a towering, 13-foot sculpture which explodes outwards from a central singularity in marine grade mirror polished stainless steel. The work calls to mind the geometric, angular shape of crystallising solids and which absorbs the viewer into its mass through the all-encompassing reflectivity of its surface. More fluid shapes appear further inside the gallery with SolidLiquid, a series of mouth-blown mirrored glass creations mounted on wood that seem to be in the process of morphing into something else as we look at them. The Intimate Formations exhibition is on show until 11 July.
In their own words: Please Do Not Enter announced today that it will present Intimate Formations, the first West coast solo exhibition for multidisciplinary artist and designer Arik Levy. This exhibition is the first Los Angeles presentation of the artist’s work since a 2010 project at the Santa Monica Museum of Art, and will be the first major exhibition held at Please Do Not Enter’s new gallery space and store in Downtown Los Angeles.
Israeli born and Paris based, Levy is internationally renowned for both his boundary bending contemporary art practice and his innovative work in industrial design. His works explore the intersection of science, nature, social philosophy and human poetics, seeking to establish visual connections between these disparate fields of knowledge and meaning. Levy’s process is an indefatigable excavation; a philosophical search for an impossible social and scientific formula to fuse contiguous realities. Through a formal and sensory vocabulary, visually reinforced by the artist through sequence, pattern and repetition, Levy stages experiential encounters with objects and space to engage his viewer emotionally and intellectually.
The exhibition Intimate Formations will feature twenty-five artworks, including free standing three-dimensional works, large-scale sculptures, wall mounted pieces, neon sculptures and paintings; a prolific collection that attests to Levy’s ambitious and tireless creative impulse. While seemingly dissimilar, upon closer inspection each piece reveals itself as an integral part of a larger dialogue and quest for cohesive meaning. Levy encourages the viewer to engage these spatial propositions rationally and emotionally, revealing the unexpected confluence of seemingly opposed faculties and impulses. The materiality and forms presented by the works individually become a kind of sensory language and semantic code as a whole, and are ultimately governed by the same unifying desire to communicate and connect.
