Ala Champ
 
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MUNI

A Leading Dining Destination In Adelaide's Rural Township of Willunga

THE ROTHKO CHAPEL

Artist Mark Rothko's Sanctuary For Contemplation, Congregation & Humanity

ART BIOTOP WATER GARDEN

Engineering Nature: Junya Ishigami's Architectural Wonder

KHAITE MERCER ST

Steel & Glass Dominate This Minimalist Flagship Retail Interior

SHIROIYA HOTEL

24 Hours In One of Japan’s Best Art & Design Hotel Destinations

Messner Mountain Museum

The ZHA-Designed Museum Dedicated to the Mountains and its Climbers

KOICHI IO

A Tokyo Studio Visit to the Third-Generation Metalsmith & Contemporary Artist

ISSEY MIYAKE SPRING SUMMER 2023

Kondo's Tribute Through The Power of Sculpture: “Enveloping The Body, Liberating The Mind.”

NoMad London

A Former Magistrates Court Is Transformed Into One Of London's Best New Hotels

Downtown L.A. Proper Hotel

Where the Creative Jetset Stay and Locals Hangout in Downtown Los Angeles

PARKHOTEL MONDSCHEIN

A Rich Cultural History Combined with a Refined Design Aesthetic at this Modern Luxe Hotel

FUFU KYOTO

An Intimate Luxury Hotel that Entwines Traditional Japanese Dining, Architecture and Hospitality with Modern Elegance

JACQUEMUS PARIS

A Pure Interior Led By Playfulness and Surprise

A-POC ABLE ISSEY MIYAKE / KYOTO

Designer Tokujin Yoshioka Renovates A 200-Year-Old Machiya, Balancing Heritage With Innovation

The Gdańsk Shakespeare Theatre

The Charred-Brick 'Black Box' Presenting The Beauty Of Theatre & Performance

GAIA

British Artist Luke Jerram’s Explores The Vastness of Our Earth

Dean Levin

Contemporary Artist Dean Levin's Rigorous Investigations of the Nature of Painting

June, 2019
Dean Levin in his New York Studio, for Ala Champ Issue 9. Photo: Clement Pascal

Born in Johannesburg, South Africa and raised in Los Angeles, 30-year old artist Dean Levin currently lives in Chinatown, New York City.

Continuously painting whilst studying Architecture at the Pratt Institute in New York, upon graduating Dean began to exhibit his sculpture, painting and installations works at unconventional venues such as the Temp Art Space and The Standard Hotel in New York. Exhibiting in group and solo shows in Turin, London, Brussels, Miami and Cologne, Dean has also exhibited with renowned gallerist Marianne Boesky. Boesky is well-celebrated for her uncanny intuition in an artists ability, even when they are well ahead of their time, such as Murakami and Yoshitomo Nara whom she launched in America in past years.

Dean’s minimalist works have numerous architectural elements that come into play, an obvious influence from his years at Pratt. His visual language is individual, with his sculpture and painting unconventional. A previous body of work saw plaster poured into the back of canvases, and his solo show at the Robert Blumenthal Gallery contained only one sculpture of a dozen paintings contained in a metal framework.

Dean Levin Studio Visit | Photography by Clement Pascal
Dean Levin | Photography by Clement Pascal

Dean’s background in architecture informs his work, studying light, colour and space to implement into his works. Utilising traditional art materials and industrial tools in his works, Dean analyses the complex relationship between mechanical reproduction and an analog approach.

Informed by the work of earlier generations of artists such as Robert Ryman, Ad Reinhardt and those associated with California Light and Space and Arte Povera, Dean tells us, “It was my sense of their rigorous investigations of the nature of painting, and of related questions like materials, object-hood, and perception that spurred me to tackle those problems in a contemporary context”.

Dean Levin | Photography by Clement Pascal
Dean Levin | Photography by Clement Pascal

What is the best thing about being an artist? 

Everything.

What is the hardest thing about being an artist? 

Everything.

Dean Levin Studio Visit | Photography by Clement Pascal
Dean Levin Studio Visit | Photography by Clement Pascal

This feature was originally published in Ala Champ Issue 9 ‘Portrait City Series’

Dean Levin

Photographed by Clement Pascal

#Champ_NewYork

June, 2019