When LEVI NELSON was younger, he carried around a show brochure in my bag for over a year in an effort to remember the experience. Over time, the friction against other elements in the bag wore down the title of the show that he was trying to remember. In trying to save something, it eroded. Levi used fragments of those words transferred onto canvas as a way of preserving something lost. More recently, he collected pages from a magazine and folded the photos displaying the clothing into patterns that focused on the blurred-out backgrounds shifting the attention from the product to the environment. Levi used painter's tape to secure the folds and created tiny sculptures that he used as a reference for painting a series of stylized trompe l'oeil pieces. It was a way of reframing a seemingly disposable fragment as an object worthy of attention. The blurred backgrounds and negative space became the subject along with the natural tearing and blue tape that occurred along the edges of the folds. Levi is interested in how information that should be clear can become lost, misremembered, or distorted in the process of trying to recreate it. The subject of my work is continually informed by an interest in human fallibility and the humble joy found in finding new ways to describe those limitations. That which is perceived as disposable and weak is reframed as essential and vital.
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