Sculptor Erik Levine Emphasizes the Intellectual

FACES

“I respect artists who make work that’s intellectually challenging,” says New York-based sculptor Erik Levine, a 1989 winner of the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art’s prestigious Awards in the Visual Arts, who has his first Los Angeles solo show at Santa Monica’s Meyers/Bloom Gallery through Nov. 27.

“I like to emphasize the mathematical, analytical, conceptual, philosophical approach to art making; the intellectual substructure, I think, is critical. I’m very cognizant of my decision making--I don’t just write it off to some muse or something,” says Levine, 30, who was a classical ballet dancer in his native Los Angeles before turning to visual art and moving East nearly a decade ago.

Levine, who has no formal art training except a few classes at UCLA (“I don’t think anybody can teach you how to make art,” he says), and considers only his art made since 1986-87 to be “real, serious work,” uses only basic carpenter’s tools to create his large (about 6x6x8 feet), unpainted, minimalistic plywood sculptures, which have been shown in prestigious locales including the Whitney Biennial and Barcelona’s Fundacio Joan Miro.

“I basically approached them the way someone would approach building furniture or a cabinet; I approached them as everyday objects,” he says of his new pieces. “These pieces are just simple math--a cone with a box--that are then transformed into something else. They’re (in) a really ambiguous state. They show the irony of function and of non-function, of representation and of non-representation, of just floating somewhere in between.”

In creating his sculptures, Levine lets “issues of labor” show through, such as pencil marks, staples and the wood putty which he uses to mark his piece and hold the thin plywood exterior to the wooden frame underneath. Nothing is added for decorative purposes, he says.

“The biggest question I get, even from museum people, about these pieces is ‘What color are you going to paint them?’ ” says Levine, who recently completed his first outdoor commission, a 12x12x14-foot cement sculpture for Minneapolis’ Walker Art Center. “I like the idea of things left unfinished. And I hate decoration. This way, it’s just more real, more truthful and more honest.”

THE SCENE

On Saturday, Artist Eloy Torres will dedicate his new mural, “Power to the People,” at 14547 Victory Blvd. in Van Nuys. The mural depicts three people literally standing on top of the world and coming together about to join hands.

“This mural evolved from a positive point of view for the ‘90s,” said Torres. “It represents the coming of time when people, regardless of their nationality, can accept and respect each other’s differences.”

The work is one of 15 new murals commissioned by the Social and Public Art Resource Center through its “Great Walls Unlimited” program.

Mixografia Gallery is going outside of its usual location at 1419 E. Adams Blvd. and is opening a special show of new graphics by noted sculptor Robert Graham at 48 Market St. in Venice on Saturday.

The show includes 38 drawings depicting female nudes in various poses. Graham made the drawings in the new “freepoint” process, working on wax plates, from which he then made copper plates and a limited edition of prints.

The show runs through Dec. 1, and additional freepoints by Graham will be on view at the gallery’s usual location through the end of the year.

CURRENTS

A new curatorial support program has been established at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art through a $450,000 matching grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

The Mellon Curatorial Support Endowment will enable the museum to increase the number of scholarly exhibitions mounted from its collections, assist curators with research and travel tasks, and support a new exhibition publication each year, according to LACMA director Earl A. (Rusty) Powell III.

Powell said the new endowment would be “a major step for greater scholarly research, publication and preparation of exhibitions by the curatorial staff,” and would be of special benefit to “promising young and mid-level curators” who are not always adequately supported.

. . . Meanwhile at LACMA, Martin Chapman has been appointed associate curator of decorative arts. Chapman, a former curator at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum, is a leading British specialist in Continental decorative arts, especially ormolu and gilt bronzes. At LACMA, he will oversee the study, research and exhibition of the renowned Gilbert collection of gold and silver.

DEBUTS

The first exhibition of the work of California pictorialist photographer Russell Lawrence French, who worked during the 1920s and ‘30s, opens Friday at Turner Dailey Gallery on Beverly Boulevard. Little is known today about the career of French, who photographed Southern California landscapes including the San Gabriel Valley, Mojave Desert, San Juan Capistrano and Los Angeles. The show runs through Dec. 8.

Italian-born artist Rudolf Stingel has his first U.S. solo show at Richard Kuhlenschmidt Gallery in Santa Monica, Saturday through Dec. 1. Stingel, now based in New York, has exhibited in Cologne and London, and has future solo shows planned for Paris and Milan. The Kuhlenschmidt show will include black-and-white photographs demonstrating how to make abstract paintings, and the paintings achieved by following those directions.

Seattle-born artist Hilary Brace, who is now based in Goleta, Calif., opens her first solo exhibition in Southern California on Thursday at Santa Monica’s Tatistcheff Gallery. On view through Dec. 8 will be new pastel works, including five large pieces measuring up to six feet wide, and 10 smaller black-and-white studies. . . . Also having his first solo exhibition is painter Wess Dahlberg, who creates monochromatic constructions. Dahlberg’s show is at Santa Monica’s Richard Green Gallery through Dec. 1.

HAPPENING

Works by more than 120 diverse artists including Kim Abeles, Robbie Conal, D.J. Hall, George Hermes, Erika Rothenberg, May Sun, John Valadez and Jeffrey Vallance will be auctioned off Saturday night at the Daniel Saxon Gallery (7525 Beverly Blvd.) to benefit the Central American Refugee Center.

Chaired by artist Frank Romero, the CARACEN benefit includes a 7-10 p.m. silent auction and an 8:30 p.m. live auction. The works will be previewed at the gallery on Friday from 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Admission on Saturday is $25. Information: (213) 483-3042.

Also on Saturday night is the L.A. Center for Photographic Studies’ fifth annual auction, which begins with a 6 p.m. cocktail reception followed by a 7:30 p.m. auction at G. Ray Hawkins Gallery in Santa Monica (910 Colorado Blvd.). Works have been donated by more than 140 artists, collectors and galleries, and featured artists include Sid Avery, John Baldessari, Margaret Bourke-White, Minor White and Jody Zellen. The works will be previewed Tuesday through Friday from noon-5 p.m. at the LACPS gallery (1048 W. 6th St.). Tickets: $30; $25 in advance. Information: (213) 482-3566.

Ninety-seven-year-old ceramicist Beatrice Wood will be at 72 Market St. on Saturday from 1 to 3 p.m. for “An Intimate Conversation.” Tickets $30; Reservations: (213) 392-8761.

A closing party for the exhibition “Unauthorized History: Robbie Conal’s Portraits of Power,” will be held Thursday at the West Hollywood nightclub Po Na Na Souk, 8531 Santa Monica Blvd. The 7:30-10 p.m. event is a benefit for New Art Examiner magazine’s West Coast office, and will feature a raffle of four of Conal’s rare signed and framed posters. Tickets are $30. Information: (213) 305-1313.

One hundred top dealers in tribal and folk art will take part this weekend in the fourth annual Los Angeles Tribal and Folk Art Show at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. Sponsored by the Antique Tribal Art Dealers Assn., the show runs 11 a.m.-7 p.m. on Saturday and 11 a.m.-5 p.m. next Sunday. Admission is $6. A special preview opening will be held on Saturday from 9:30 to 11 a.m., with proceeds from the $25-per-person event going to the Craft and Folk Art Museum. Information: (213) 455-2886.

ETC.

The Huntington Library has extended its weekend hours and is now open 10:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. . . . Patricia L. Fiske has been appointed assistant director of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African Art in Washington. Fiske is a former executive director of both the Textile Museum in Washington and the U.S. Committee for Saudi Arabian Cultural Heritage.