Thirteen paintings by Assistant Professor of Art Andrew Leventis will be displayed at the Mint Museum Uptown Friday, Jan. 14, through Sunday, May 8, for the museum’s “Constellation CLT” series, which celebrates work by local artists. The series spotlights three artists each year.
The exhibition, “Andrew Leventis: Contemporary Vanities,” features work created since the pandemic began. Its photorealist still-life oil paintings depict the contents of freezers and refrigerators — including his own.
“The paintings reflect on the mass panic induced by the Covid-19 virus, and how the idea of ‘stocking up’ became a crucial and even primal response in a notion to survive,” wrote Leventis in an artist statement.
The paintings have been recognized internationally for their stunning technique and their contemporary resonance. In September 2020, “Freezer Box (Vanitas)”, was one of 128 works selected from more than 3,500 entries for the 2020 Wells Art Contemporary exhibition and award show in the United Kingdom. The following spring, it and its companion, “Refrigerator (Vanitas),” were presented in the Aesthetica Art Prize Exhibition at the York Art Gallery (U.K.) and included in the publication, “Future Now: 100 Contemporary Artists.” And the series as a whole was named “Best Series” in the Queen City Nerve 2021 “Best in the Nest” awards.
Leventis earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting from the American Academy of Art in Chicago and a Master of Fine Arts from Goldsmiths College, University of London. His work has been featured in Norway at Kunstgalleriet, in London at Matt Roberts Arts and in Rome at the Venanzo Crocetti Museum. In the United States, his work was part of the Mainframe exhibition at the Mint Museum in Charlotte and at the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists’ Coalition annual juried show in New York.