SERENITY IN THE STRUGGLE
Max Levenson & Richard Remenick

January 2 - 29, 2018
Opening Reception: Friday, January 12, 2018 | 5:30 - 7:30 PM

MAX LEVENSON

“I perseverate.
Things turn over and over in my mind.
I repeat ideas, thoughts, scenarios, memories, hundreds and thousands of times.
Each idea attached to an emotion, plucked and tugged as I roll past again and again. The work is equal parts punishment and therapy.”

Max Levenson’s works are presentations of emotional conflicts that have been turned over and over again in her mind. The production and presentation of emotion is steeped in the repetitive act of making sense of nonsensical situations. Objects are made in the process of sorting through life’s experiences. Inexpensive materials are used; self is of little worth. Minimalist influences, reflective qualities and shadows distract from imperfections in an attempt to present a pleasing surface; “like smiling and saying everything is fine when you’re dying inside. It is what is done.”

Max Levenson received her Masters in Fine Arts in 2016 at Savannah College of Art and Design earning the title of Master Painter. Ironically she graduated using, almost exclusively, non-traditional materials that she presents in the language of painting. With a background in mural work, she has transferred this impulse and continues to fill and transform spaces.

RICHARD REMENICK

“Too often in the world of art we hear the dismissive criticism, ‘that’s already been done.’ This has been used by some to consign the entire field of painting to the dustbin of history, or to a kind of boutique specialty indulged in by a nearly extinct species of dinosaur.

"I would like to suggest that a lot of things ‘have been done’ but that this will not stop people from continuing to do them. There is still the need for painters to celebrate the presence of something valuable, even sacred, residing in fields of grass, glass bottles, or even highway overpasses, a presence that we forget in our pursuit of the new and up-to-date.

"So as a painter and dinosaur, I offer my paintings, not because my kind of painting hasn’t been done, but because it has been and it ain’t finished yet.“

Richard Remenick is the son of painter Seymour Remenick. Richard took up painting after his father’s death using equipment found in his closet and studied with his former students from at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Born to Yiddish speaking Jewish immigrants from what is now the Ukraine, Richard’s father chose to disconnect from tradition. Richard began the journey of returning to the Jewish tradition. “I find myself wondering if these two traditions can support each other, whether Jewish tradition can enliven painting and the process of painting enliven the understanding of the Jewish tradition.”

Elizabeth Denison Hatch Gallery