Jess Levey
Artist based in New York City
ABOUT
Jess Levey is a New York City based, multimedia artist who works in photography, assemblage, video installation, and sound. Her work has been exhibited at various art spaces in and around NYC including Exit Art, The Invisible Dog, NurtureArt, MoCADA, and The Rochester Contemporary. Her work has also been selected for exhibitions at Woman Made Gallery in Chicago and Spilt Milk Gallery in Edinburgh, Scotland. Her films have been selected for festivals such as the NY Short Film Festival, The NY Pause Film Festival, The Queens World Film Festival and the Paris Short Film Festival. Jess's work was also selected for Tomorrow’s Stars: The Art Brooklyn Open Call Exhibition at the Verge Art Fair. Jess was born and bred in Brooklyn, NY where she lived until she moved with her husband and daughter to Jackson Heights, Queens- the most diverse neighborhood in the world where you can hear over 165 different languages spoken. Jess received her BA from Barnard College and her MFA from Hunter College. Jess was recently an artist-in-residence at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Center (LMCC) on Governors Island in New York City.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Combining projection, photography, video, sound and/or assemblage, I transform imagery through the addition of material barriers while exploring boundaries between the tangible and intangible. Visual barriers exist in my work either as interventions in front of the lens or with collaged materials layered under a transparent image. The use of light through projections or lightboxes creates a dialogue between permanence and impermanence. My lightbox assemblages are created by combining photographs with materials such as negative strips in order to obscure and transform the original image. Photographs of forests may be obscured using found plastics that are sliced, pasted and layered underneath the original photograph. Through works related to grief, geopolitical divisions, the menopausal transition, and the climate crisis, I layer fragments of materials, images, and/or sound. I create meaning through rearrangement, while rebuilding from what already exists. By intentionally introducing material barriers into my projections or assemblages, the viewer is asked to consider the many impediments that keep us disconnected from one another and from our natural world.
Website: www.jesslevey.com
Instagram: @jesslevey.art