Works by painting professors Andrew Leventis and Maja Godlewska appear in the exhibition The World Without Us at A.P.T. Gallery London. The show opens October 25 and runs through November 10.
The World Without Us considers the role of the painter in the contemporary digital world through the work of six contemporary international artists: Phillip Allen, Sally Kindberg, Christiane Pooley, and Soheila Sokhanvari, in addition to Godlewska and Leventis. The works in the exhibition show each painter’s unique relationship to new media.
“The theme is topical, and perhaps more urgent than ever for painting, as more of painting is created digitally through tablets, Instagram filters, iPhones, etc.,” said Leventis in a press release. “How does traditional painting respond to – or have a dialectical relationship with – these technologies? How do these technologies change the content, style, and feel of traditional painting?”
Coachbag by Andrew Leventis
His photo-realist still lifes and street scenes contrast greatly with Godlewska’s abstract landscapes, which unfold on long paper scrolls that create a kind of labyrinth across the floor. She has traveled to numerous vacation spots, from the island of Mauritius to U.S national parks, to observe and record tourists as they interact with nature.
“I am interested in the ‘tourist gaze,’” Godlewska said in the release, or “’selfie-gaze-tourism,’ the colonizing aspect of excessive photography, in the notions of being and experiencing and what may unfold and be ignored outside of our perpetually employed viewfinders.”
Installation by Maja Godlewska
Godlewska’s work has been exhibited internationally in more than 100 solo and group shows, including most recently On the Basis of Encounters at Greenlease Gallery, Rockhurst University, Kansas City, MO; The Ultimate Landscape at New Gallery of Modern Art, Charlotte, NC; Self at c.r.e.t.a. rome, Rome, Italy; and ARTchipelago at the French Institute, Mauritius.
Recent exhibitions of Leventis’s work include a group show at Salmagundi Club, 5th Avenue, New York; Mise-en-Scene at SOZO Gallery, Charlotte, NC; Mainframe at The Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC; Malamegi, 28 Piazza di Pietra Gallery, Rome; and the LA Artcore 4th Annual Juried Exhibition in Los Angeles, CA.