Portland, OR – Bullseye Gallery presents The Secret Order, a solo exhibition by Silvia Levenson on view April 2 – May 31, 2014.
In her previous work Silvia Levenson has drawn a distinction between our perceptions and the truth. Using playful colors and visual sleight of hand, Levenson uncovers the turbulent forces that simmer beneath culturally constructed concepts such as domesticity, beauty and femininity. In The Secret Order, Levenson explores the origin of these constructs. “Sometimes adults fantasize that they can understand children because they were once children,” Levenson explains, “but the world of children is far from the world of adults. These years delineate an era when the boundary between reality and dreams is evanescent.” The dreamlike and dislocated world of children is emphasized through mixed-media sculptures of little girls with animal heads. Installed with constellation maps, these works point to our futile desire to find meaning in the chaos while simultaneously hinting at a hidden order, albeit one that is not discernable to those of us who have transitioned from childhood to adulthood.
Originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina, Silvia Levenson immigrated to Italy in 1981, during the “disappearances” of the Dirty War. In 2004, Levenson received the Rakow Commission Award from the Corning Museum of Glass in New York, and in 2008 she was a shortlisted nominee for the Bombay Sapphire Prize. Her work has been exhibited around the world and is part of the collections of the Corning Museum of Glass, the Museo del Vidrio in Argentina, and the Museo del Vetro in Italy.