David Lefkowitz: Other Positioning Systems
September 11, 2009 – January 10, 2010
Onofrio Gallery
This exhibition features paintings, drawings and mixed media installations that highlight David Lefkowitz's ongoing explorations of the slippery relation between our direct experience of the world and the systems and structures we have devised to make that experience make sense—from the simple act of framing, to various mapping strategies, to surveillance technology, to the exhibition space itself. Other Positioning Systems will include samples from several bodies of work from the past dozen years and new work designed specifically for this exhibition.
The main gallery will be divided into five separate exhibits, each focusing on a different aspect of the representation of place and space. From large scale panoramas of vast vistas, to tiny paintings of lint, from a city constructed of Styrofoam packing material to a model of a quarry carved out of a stack of sheetrock, visitors will encounter dramatic shifts of scale and vantage point, and transformations of materials usually discarded in our contemporary consumer culture.
Put away your GPS and let yourself get lost in a mazelike smorgasbord of visual and spatial curiosities.
David Lefkowitz is an artist who moves about in a large visual arena. He seeks inspiration from art history, travel and the idiosyncrasies of daily life. He is not limited to traditional art materials in the work he creates, often recycling cardboard, wood scraps and even Styrofoam. Mostly considered a painter, he frequently crosses over into sculpture either in relief or, occasionally, freestanding objects that often become part of an installation. His sense of humor and regard for the environment are almost always present in his multi-dimensional repertoire.
David Lefkowitz is a graduate of the University of Illinois, Chicago (MFA) and Carleton College (BA) in Northfield, Minnesota, where he currently teaches drawing and painting. He has exhibited extensively throughout the country, including solo exhibits at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, DCKT Contemporary in New York, and Carrie Secrist Gallery in Chicago. His work is represented in the collections of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, The Miami Art Museum, and the Langen Foundation in Neuss, Germany. He has been the recipient of several awards from the Minnesota State Arts Board, and had received both McKnight Foundation and Bush Foundation Artist Fellowships. David Lefkowitz is represented by Thomas Barry Fine Art in Minneapolis.
The public opening reception for David Lefkowitz is at the Rochester Art Center on Friday, September 11, at 5:30 pm. Tickets are free for Rochester Art Center members and $5 for non-members. Cash bar and hors d’oeuvres provided by Catering by Design. The reception is followed by Flux, the Art Center’s late night art and music event featuring DJ Black Lacquer.
A full-color exhibition catalogue will be produced and available for purchase at the Rochester Art Center Gallery Shop in mid-November.
Image: Plan 2, Styrofoam on wall