“Gardens of Eurasia: Gifts of Stone and Earth,” 2022 (Studio view), Hand-painted liquid mirror and enamel on glass in aluminum frame, 12 panels, overall 48 x 80 inches. Courtesy the artist and Marisa Newman Projects, NY.
Levani’s practice takes a transdisciplinary approach to empirical, scientific, and spiritual knowledge.
They create immersive installations, two-dimensional images, sculptural objects, and neons that explore the psychological dimensions of current geopolitical shifts and socio-cognitive dislocation. Informed by their interest in cosmology, neuroscience, biology, and epistemology, Levani’s work invokes a post-binary, pluriversal alternative to human-centric, dualistic perspectives.
Their ongoing body of work, “Gardens of Eurasia,” taps into the porousness and interconnectivity of matter and meaning along with all life forms. Simultaneously, Levani looks to their place of origin—Eurasia—not as an enduring binary opposition (West vs. East), but as a site of vast cultural legacies, and therefore potentialities. This project aims to map an iconography of pluriversal belonging and inspire empathy, solidarity, and care.
Levani (b. Tbilisi, Georgia), lives and works in New York. They hold MFA from Buenos Aires National University of Arts (IUNA) and BFA from Tbilisi State Academy of Arts. They had staged solo presentations at Marisa Newman Projects NY, NARS Foundation, Brooklyn; Georgian National Museum, Mestia; Silk Museum, Tbilisi, among others. Their work has been included at the 5th AIM Biennial, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx; Socrates Sculpture Park, Queens; 1st Immigrant Artists Biennial, Elizabeth Foundation for Arts Project Space, NY; Below Grand, NY; 7th Beijing Biennial, National Art Museum of China; East Slovak Gallery, Kosovo; Tartu Art Museum, Estonia; BRIC Biennial, Vol 3., and others. They are recipient of the Peter S. Reed Foundation Grant, Socrates Sculpture Park Fellowship, NYFA Immigrant Artists Mentoring Program, AIM Fellowship of the Bronx Museum of the Arts, Creative Times X Summit Grant, and FABLES Commission grant for Public Art Projects from National Endowments for Arts, NY. Their work has been reviewed in Frieze, Art in America, HYPERALLERGIC, ArtAsia Pacific; The Art Newspaper, Pin-UP Magazine, OSMOS, Observer, Art Margins, and others. Levani’s work is in public collections of the National Art Museum of China, Beijing; Georgian National Museum, Mestia; and Tbilisi Silk Museum, Georgia.