Kathy Levine - City Cells

Kathy Levine

My early influences were the people from different cultures I saw while traveling with my family in Europe, parts of the Middle East and North Africa while growing up in Spain and England. In addition to art and culture, my parents instilled in me a love of the natural world. After graduating from Pratt with an MFA degree, I found myself drawn to empty lots and green areas along the East River. I was surprised to find that even though the artificial environment dominates the natural one in NYC, living things seem to be flourishing in a hostile concrete, metal and asphalt setting filled with acrid air and contaminated soil. I realize as a natural organism myself that my primary interest is to explore in a new way this uneasy, complex relationship between nature and the urban environment. In the “City Cell” pieces, there is a natural form in relief that can be seen below the surface of a photographic image of the urban environment. The rectangular shape of the pieces is that of the living cell as well as the city block. As an ecologically minded, mixed-media artist, I create two and three-dimensional pieces from recycled paper, a water-based photographic transfer process, paint, graphite, wood and other materials.