Artist Profile | Jill Levine
Twofold: Artist -Teacher, Teacher - Artist
Jill Levine earned her B.A. at Queens College, where she also received a fellowship to the Yale Summer School of Art in Norfolk, CT. She earned her M.F.A. from the Yale University School of Art, which included a semester at the Royal College of Art in London. She has been exhibiting regularly since the late 1970s in both group and solo exhibitions. In 2000 she was the recipient of the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship and in 2005 a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship. Her sculpture is included in numerous private and corporate collections worldwide as well as in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; and the Art in Embassies Program, Mumbai Embassy. She had her first solo exhibition with Hionas Gallery, New York, entitled “Cats Talk” in May of 2014.
"Viento," 2012, styrofoam, plaster-dipped gauze, modeling compound, and oil paint, 14 x 10 x 7 in.
How do you see the relationship between your art and your teaching?
By way of introduction I taught New York City high school students for approximately 32 years. At Brooklyn High School of the Arts, where I was for the last ten years, my students auditioned in art to attend this program. The curriculum was a rigorous four year program designed to help the students prepare for an art college should they be interested. My students were learning the basics, drawing, painting, and some sculpture. In their junior and senior years they would start to develop a portfolio to apply for college. My students were aware of my work and could look at my website, however, I felt it was really important to allow them to follow their own vision. My own work uses imagery inspired by Pre-Columbian art as well as pattern. I had an extensive collection of art books so that I could offer a multitude of ideas on how to create an image. As a painter and sculptor my interest in materials manifested itself in certain projects opening students up to different ways of making a picture. Overall I would say that by being a practicing artist my own dedication and curiosity in art created an environment for rigor, exploration, and joy.
"Double Talk," 2012, styrofoam, plaster-dipped gauze, model-ing compound, and oil paint, 20 x 12 x 19 in.
"Ciento Azul," 2012, styrofoam, plaster-dipped gauze, modeling com-pound, and oil paint, 21 x 13 x 6 in.
"Frazada," 2011, styrofoam, plaster-dipped gauze, model-ing compound, and oil paint, 19 x 13 x 9 in.