I was foot weary when I entered Adam Leveille’s studio during the recent Somerville Open Studios since I trusted my feet only to rare sightings of promised trolleys which then vanished. Perhaps my head was in the clouds.
And yet I persevered to a studio which contained work which had me looking and looking again.
Leveille has a way of see-sawing between impressionistic, refreshing country scenes, charming urban vistas and, in his current “Unadorned” exhibition at Chase Young Gallery in Boston’s SoWa District, sorely used yet intriguing, even mysteriously glamorous urban detritus, or vintage toys.
The detritus is mostly packaging, tossed away commercial packaging of soft or alcohol-bearing drinks from water to beer; shiny paper packaging from candy bars to scintillating gems of candy whose individual packaging as well as family-sized bags coruscate with light and delicious color.
The ancient Romans and Greeks would name special Gods and Goddesses to oversee the siren songs of advertising; modern sociologists would and do pen weighty tomes on the efficacies of symbolism that can be found teasing the subconscious of consumers to accept and purchase before the conscious mind has awareness enough to caution a second look.
Perhaps every definition of art is, finally, personal. To me, Contemporary Realism, after my visit to painter Adam Leveille’s Brickbottom Studio in Somerville, means collecting your models new off shelves or from store stockrooms all shiny in their first burst of consumerist glory. Or, after they’ve been used, half used, even used up, to be discarded in a state of undress totally unfit to be posed and portrayed to chase them down by streets, by alleys, and do the unthinkable.
Nose to nose for a close-up, the bristles of his brush describing the contours of every inch from caverns to protuberances then drawing back as though he’s a court painter describing the children of the royals painted in their full stature. A legacy bequeathed to country and citizens. But if it’s a legacy, it’s a bumptious legacy. And if it’s a court, it’s mixed mannered. But you, as a citizen of the world, know that.
You’re invited to use your own discernment on the haul of commerce that Adam Leveille, on foot and bicycle has lassoed and brought back to the corral of “Art.”
Leveille is paired in “Unadorned” with Liv Jung-König, whose paintings “are naturalistic in nature, the choice of her compositions subject to her whims and desires: sun-spotted play scenes, back views capturing a very familiar moment or abstract landscapes, folded in contemplative repetition,” according to her bio.
It’s an imbricated haul, with the garish overlapping the subtle the royal the common, then according to your taste’s appetite everything, with an almost audible susurration, changes place.
Your own taste as with any shopping expedition becomes corrupted then refined: rootless impulse vying with considered judgement.
You almost seem to be losing your own place in the ordered hierarchy of the universe. But then when think all is lost you remember that you have two feet which you can rest between steps. And wave goodbye to the bus, which probably isn’t there anyway!
(“Adam Leveille and Liv Jung-König: Unadorned” continues through July 15 with a First Friday reception on June 5 at Chase Young Gallery, 450 Harrison Ave., Boston, Massachusetts. The gallery is open Tuesday from 10 a.m.-3 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday from noon-5 p.m., and Sunday by appointment of chance.)