EXPOSURE

Booth 470

LEVANI

SUSANA WALD

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Marisa Newman Projects is thrilled to present an intergenerational dialogue between Levani and Susana Wald. Centered on emergence and rebirth - central topics for each artist - our presentation pairs Wald's paintings from the "Egg" series with Levani's works from the "imago of a queer artist*" project. The two artists share similar biographical paths. Born in eastern Europe—Susana Wald in 1937, Budapest, Hungary, and Levani in 1979 in Tbilisi, Georgia—both artists' formative creative years were spent in Buenos Aires (and in Chile for Wald); later, they both migrated to North America. Susana Wald lived in Canada before relocating to Oaxaca, Mexico, while Levani calls New York home. At the fringes of patriarchal normativity, both artists develop seductive visual language permeated with erotic resilience to explore feminist and queer subjectivities.

LEVANI (Preview PDF)

SUSANA WALD (Preview PDF)

About the Artists:

SUSANA WALD Born in 1937 in Budapest, Hungary. Lives and works in San Andrés Huayapam, Oaxaca, Mexico. Painter, literary translator, graphic designer, publisher, and writer, Susana Wald's extensive work encompasses painting, ceramics, murals, drawings, and collages. A key figure in understanding international Surrealism from a feminist standpoint, Susana Wald has been creating work for over 60 years.

Presented at ExpoChicago is a selection of her historic Egg series spanning from the earliest ceramic pieces from 1972 (Tea for Two) to the most recent paintings completed in 2010 (Emblematica de Americas). As in the best traditions of Surrealism, the subconscious and the sublime leads Susana Wald's quests to challenge and expand philosophical questions of life and existence. The Egg, an already complex and loaded image/concept, is intertwined with the artist's personal history, like an alloy spoon from the WW2 aid package, which the artist carried with her for decades (100 ańos, 2001). Wald remarks: "I only now understand that the egg series is about emergence, the emergence of female energy that has been suppressed for so long. And now, in its resurgence and growing strength, we need it to bring balance into today's world."

Susana Wald's work has been exhibited extensively. Among the most notable ones should be mentioned her retrospective "En busca de lo Inasible" at Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago, Chile, curated by Macarena Bravo Cox (2021), "Iberoamérica Pinta" a traveling group show organized by Fondo de Cultura Económica and UNESCO, exhibiting in more than 20 countries (1997-2000), "Surrealism in Chile," at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago (1970), and the 42nd Venice Biennial "Arte e Sienza" organized by Arturo Schwarz (1986). Susana Wald will have her first solo show with Marisa Newman Projects in September 2023, focusing on her historical paintings and drawings from the 80s.

Join Susana Wald in conversation with the curator of EXPOSURE section this year Aimé Iglesias Lukin (Director and Chief Curator of Visual Arts at Americas Society, NY), on Sunday, April 16, 12-1 PM.

LEVANI’s transdisciplinary practice is an eco-centric inquiry into the questions of identity and belonging. The works in the booth are from their current project imago of a queer artist* that offers a space for an expanded notion of queerness as the capacity for porousness, fluidity, and transformation. Drawing inspiration from linguistics (i·ma·go Latin for "image"), biology (imago is the last, winged stage in insect development followed by the complete metamorphosis), and psychology (an unconscious idealized mental image of someone, which influences a person's behavior), Levani creates complex, layered images that affirm desire and imagination as primary tools for world- building.

Levani is a Tbilisi-born artist based in New York. They hold an MFA from IUNA Buenos Aires and a BFA from the Tbilisi Academy of Arts. Levani has exhibited extensively at venues and institutions such as Artists Alliance Inc., Georgian National Museum, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, Tbilisi Kunsthalle, Socrates Sculpture Park, the Beijing Biennial, Tartu Art Museum, Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, and the BRIC Biennial, among others. Their work has been featured in Frieze, Art in America, The Brooklyn Rail, BOMB, The Art Newspaper, ArtAsia Pacific, Art Papers, Art News, Observer, HYPERALLERGIC, and more. Levani's work is in public collections of The National Art Museum of China, Beijing; Georgian National Museum, Mestia; and Tbilisi Silk Museum, Georgia.

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EXPO CHICAGO

April 13 - 16, 2023

NAVY PIERS CHICAGO

VIP PREVIEW

Thursday, April 13 | 12:00 noon – 6:00 pm

(By Invitation Only)

OPENING NIGHT

Thursday, April 13 | 6:00–9:00pm

(Limited Availability | A portion of each ticket sold will benefit the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago)

GENERAL ADMISSION

Friday, April 14 | 11:00am – 7:00pm

Saturday, April 15 | 11:00am – 7:00pm

Sunday, April 16 | 11:00am – 6:00pm

Tickets and More Info

www.expochicago.com