JAY LEVY

Assemblies of form, color, texture and memory describe how my paintings and sculpture have evolved over time. Through an exploration of visual and spatial relationships, I work to juxtapose materials and images that I've collected and created, decompose them into a new palette, and recycle their meaning into the layers of my canvas.

Starting art school at a very young age, my passion for creativity has grown into a lifelong pursuit. While studying painting at Pratt Institute, I augmented my education with a degree in architecture to gain a deeper understanding of three-dimensional space on a large scale. After graduation, I first worked for three years in the studio of the esteemed sculptor, Isamu Noguchi, which forever shaped my understanding of the importance of developing a personal vision to pursue in life. Following that, I worked for nine years at the prestigious NYC architecture firm of Gwathmey Siegel, which gave me a deeper appreciation of how materials are detailed and put together. The synergies of both disciplines continue to influence my work.

Abstract Visual Relationships, a course that I taught at Pratt Institute for many years, gave me the opportunity to focus on synthesizing visual disciplines as a convergence into a common language of abstraction. It is a deep understanding of this discipline, along with a well developed intuition, that free me to search for an eloquence in the expression of my art.