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Recently, I spent an afternoon walking through the neighborhood of Old City in Philadelphia. Immediately after stepping foot in this neighborhood, you feel the influence of a generation of artists, who  in the nineteen seventies began to transform the neighborhood into a thriving arts district. Passing through the various galleries, you quickly get a sense of the differences and varying tastes of contemporary art. Some work are inspiring, while others leave you questioning your own notions regarding art. The day I ventured to Philadelphia, I was given the opportunity to enjoy several galleries with an artist whose own work I thoroughly enjoyed and had left an impression on me.

Alexandria Levin, a painter, graphic designer and poet, whose work of abandoned, unloved and childless stuffed animals had left me in awe, was able to join me for a short stroll through the neighborhood. Taking me to some of her favorite galleries, we discussed her work, contemporary art and what she looked for in her own art experience.

Enjoying a coffee at a local café, I asked her what works of art has had the most impact on her and why. She promptly replied she loves Paul Gauguin’s painting Where Do We Come From? What Are We, Where Are We Going?, for her this painting comes to life, “It’s all just this fantastical realm and this other place, at the same time there’s stuff going on, there’s content,” said Levin. Alexandria art isn’t just about the painting itself, it’s the story, the emotion and Gauguin’s painting epitomizes this feeling. The painting created in 1897 in Tahiti, not only tells a story, but asks to search for answers beyond the paint. Gauguin suggests that the viewer read the painting from right to left, starting with Where Do We Come From?, three women caring for a young child, the beginning. The painting concludes with Where Are We Going?, an old woman approaching death, the end. Each piece of the painting representing a different aspect of Gauguin’s own thoughts and ideals is told through the use of vivid colors and brushstrokes; you can see the artist in the painting. This is something Alexandria looks for when viewing works of art. Other artists, whom have left a lasting imprint on her, include Diego Rivera, Georgia O’Keefe, and Ingres. All of these artists have something in common; they are all says Levin “,Using gorgeous paint, gorgeous line, and gorgeous color, to tell stories of things that are sometimes not so gorgeous”.

For Alexandria, art is evaluated through story and response, through paint and color, it has to say something and there must be a tension in the work, a mystery. Later, I asked her when viewing art, what took precedent, the idea or the emotion? For her the emotion needs to hit you before anything else, “it can be intellectual, but it first has to hit you in an emotional physical way,” she said. I tend to agree, there aren’t many pieces I can recall viewing that didn’t actually draw me in, make me a part of the art itself or leave a part of the artist imprinted on me. In the pieces where artists leave a part of themselves behind, you can see it. Alexandria can see it in their brushstrokes, their paint, in the clarity of the work. She told me in those paintings she knows, “while [the artists] are working on it, they are in tune with the universe”

There are many ways to judge art and from person to person it can be a very different experience. For Alexandria Levin, it is the story being told to her, the colors, the paint and the emotional connection to the work. This is what she looks for when experiencing art, whether it is contemporary art or works from the greats, but from time to time, even a still life of a bowl of peaches can have a powerful effect. This is the same for many people and from one day to the next the viewer can have a different experience from the same work. As always, in the end, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

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Alexandria Levin is an artist currently calling Philadelphia her home. She has been exhibiting her work across the country since 1981. You can find a collection of Alexandria’s work at http://www.alexalev.com/

review by Matthew Verrette.

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