In Dan Levenson's first solo exhibition, he has created a fictional and immersive narrative about a community of Swiss artists at the now-defunct State Art Academy, Zrich (SKZ). In one room, a set of paintings represents the results of a single composition exercise assigned to one class of students. The paintings appear to have suffered from time and neglect; their surfaces are cracked and discolored. In an adjacent gallery, an installation of storage racks, student lockers, paint-splattered studio floors and modular art school furniture collapses the imagined space of the art school with the real space of the gallery. The sculptural furniture serves a practical function in Levenson's studio so that the accretions of his process create the impression of many years of use. Traces of the lost culture of the art school abound, particularly in Levenson's use of standardized international paper sizes, which dictate the scale and composition of every painting and object he produces. Each painting fits inside a storage box recovered from the ruins of the art school. The boxes fit together with classroom furniture: a desk, flat files, work tables, and drawing horses. Dan Levenson "SKZ Painting Storage" will be on view until October 10, 2015 at Susanne Vielmetter Gallery, 6006 W Washington Blvd, Culver City, CA. photographs by Oliver Maxwell Kupper
