Talia Levitt’s paintings tell a story of rags to riches in New York
2 min read · 09 Jun 2023
Talia Levitt, Vanitas Schmatta (2022). Copyright the artist. Courtesy of Rachel Uffner
The artist Talia Levitt is on the HENI News radar. Her colorful, embroidery-like paintings go on show in New York, hot on the heels of being named an artist to watch.
Talia Levitt's HENI Score—a unique artist sentiment—has increased by an impressive 170% after a spike in media coverage around her solo show at Rachel Uffner gallery. Levitt’s trompe l’oeil paintings were a talking point on the talent-spotting gallerist’s booth at NADA art fair in New York in May 2023.
Levitt’s paintings are now on show in “Schmatta” at Rachel Uffner (until June 30). The exhibition title is the Yiddish word for “rag”. Featured works refer to the history of New York’s garment trade and the artist’s family links to it as well as its importance to Jewish immigrants back in the day.
The artist, who was born in 1989 and is based in Brooklyn, has shown her works at other galleries over the past two years, including a solo show at Hesse Flatow of New York, a group show at Morgan Lehman Gallery, New York, and at Winston Wächter Fine Art in its New York space. In July 2022, Levitt participated in a group exhibition of three young artists at Alexander Berggruen gallery in New york.
On the primary market her paintings have been offered for between $5,000 and $22,000 over the past two years. They are untested at auction, so far.
Talia Levitt, Drawing on the Train - Day/Night (2023), Copyright the artist. Courtesy of Rachel Uffner
Levitt has developed a novel approach to painting, applying acrylic paint with piping bags, stencils, and freehand techniques to create a trompe l’oeil effect of stitching, which gives her works the appearance of an embroidery or tapestry. She also draws on her training as an illustrator to create her intricate compositions, combining reference to Old Masters, folk art and pop imagery.
Levitt told Eazel magazine: “Painting has always been a necessity-is-the-mother-of-invention type of thing for me, which I think is backwards for some painters. I consider the materials or surfaces I need in each painting and figure out how to best represent them. The sandwich bag technique, like cake icing, is quite convincing as embroidery, and I’ve actually learned a lot of techniques from the baking community."
To get a deeper understanding of Talia Levitt's career visit her HENI Dashboard; a unique graphical data tool illustrating an artist’s auction sales, shows, profiles, mentions and their HENI Score. You can search for any one of the 100,000 Artist Dashboards to quickly appreciate their trajectory as well as sharing via email, text and WhatsApp.