is showing at Crédac from 14 January to 27 March 2011 >->> opening, Thursday 13 January 2011 from 5 PM to 9 PM

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1 Cursif is showing at Crédac from 14 January to 27 March 2011 >->> opening, Thursday 13 January 2011 from 5 PM to 9 PM Curator: Claire Le Restif Communications: Eran Guterman / contact@credac.fr Centre d'art contemporain d'ivry - le Crédac 93, avenue Georges Gosnat Ivry-sur-Seine information: + 33 (0) Tuesday to Friday 2 PM to 6 PM, Saturday and Sunday 2 PM to 7 PM and by appointment "free admission" M line 7, Mairie d'ivry / (20 minutes from Châtelet / 50 m away from the metro station) Le Crédac gratefully acknowledges the support of the City of Ivry-sur-Seine, the Regional Direction for Cultural Affairs of Île-de-France (Ministry of Culture and Communications), the General Council of Val-de-Marne and the Regional Council of Île-de-France. Le Crédac is a member of and networks

2 The work of (born in Istanbul in 1960; lives and works in Basel) is an intense and powerful art that has always drawn my attention and captured my interest at each new manifestation. She is one of those artists who constantly aim to broaden and vigorously redefine the field of art making, specifically the field of painting here. Long identified with the spray paint Levi uses both on canvases and directly on walls, the painting itself has become the motif. The major interventions, for instance, put one in mind of ornament and abstraction. Her work has embraced a syncopated rhythm, occupying a place between decorative space and performance, the unfolding of a painting and fresco work, projection of a gesture and graffiti, a return to writing and erasure. Surface and frame, wall and exhibition venue have played a central role since the start of her commitment to art, creating for viewers a modified perception of space. Yet the works she proposes are neither spectacular nor sensational for all that. Today, after having put together numerous shows that include important retrospectives, Levi is pressing on with her painting. The artist is currently showing her latest works at Crédac. Fluorescent spray paint has yielded to a broad brush and colors like blue or even more simply white. The instability and volatility of spray paint have been traded in for the thickness of pigment applied with a brush. And working directly on the wall has given way to the return of frame-mounted canvas. The show is called Cursif (Cursive, in English), which means traced by the hand. The term is related to course, to speed and fleetness in writing and reading, and suggests something that is rapid, brief, swift and imperative. Small objects are also found scattered throughout the exhibition venue. These contain tiny drawings placed within the mass of Plexiglas and create a dialogue with the large canvases, which exhibit traces of the artist s gesture. As inclusions, the drawings, anonymous little treasures, are actually test doodles gleaned from stationary stores. Doubtless they serve as a means for questioning the tentative, the instinctual, the primitive. It is within that question then that Cursif was imagined and took shape, an important stage in the research of this Swiss artist. Claire Le Restif

3 o.t., x 570 cm, 3 parts Bernard Jordan chez galerie Bernard Jordan, Zürich View of the installation at Kunsthaus Baselland (curator : Eric Hattan)

4 Biography Born in 1960 in Instanbul. Lives and works in Basel, Switzerland. SOLO SHOWS (selection) 2011 Galerie Evergreene, Genève (CH) Kunsthalle Palazzo, Liestal (CH). Galerie Bernard Jordan, Zürich (CH) Kunstmuseum, Thun (CH). Galerie Filles du Calvaire, Paris (FR). House of Art, Ceske Budejovice (CZ). Galerie Evergreene, Genève (CH) Iconoclaste, le Parvis Centre d Art Contemporain, Ibos (FR). Bix Fassade, Kunsthaus Graz (AT). 11 th India Trienale, New Dehli (IN). Galerie Nicolas Krupp, Basel (CH) Le Quartier, Centre d Art Contemporain, Quimper (FR) Museum Folkwang, Essen (DE) Galerie Filles du Calvaire, Paris (FR) Espace de l Art Concret, Mouans-Sartoux (FR). Mamco Musée d art moderne et contemporain, Genève (CH) Kunsthalle Basel (CH) The Swiss Institute, New York (USA). Aargauer Kunsthaus Aarau (CH). GROUP SHOWS (selection) 2010 Le Carillon de Big Ben, Centre d art contemporain d Ivry le Crédac (FR) Galerie de Multiple, Paris (FR) Printemps de Septembre, Toulouse (FR) 2007 Plus, Museum Wiesbaden (DE) Nouvelles Collections II, Centre PasquArt, Bienne/Biel (CH). Midnight Walkers, Centre d art contemoporain d Ivry le Crédac (FR) Abstraktes Material, Künstlerhaus Graz (AT). Space Invaders, Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel (CH) Painting on the Move, Es gibt kein letztes Bild Malerei nach 1968, Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Basel (CH) Die Pracht erwacht, Museum zu Allerheiligen Schaffhausen (CH). Abbild, Steirischer Herbst Graz (AT) Das Gedächtnis der Malerei, Aargauer Kunsthaus Aarau (CH) Freie Sicht aufs Mittelmeer, Kunsthaus Zürich (CH). Schweiz konstruktiv, Zürich (CH), & Frankfurter Kunstverein (DE). Odile, canvas, 280 x 340 cm Printemps de Septembre in Toulouse galerie Jacques Girard, Toulouse

5 Odile, canvas, 280 x 340 cm Printemps de Septembre in Toulouse galerie Jacques Girard, Toulouse Liestal1, 2010 Acrylic on canvas, 340 x 450 cm Kunsthalle Palazzo Liestal, Dialog 1, + Karen Geyer, Installation with 4 canvas ans sound All pictures : Courtesy galerie Les Filles du Calvaire, Paris, galerie Bernard Jordan, Zürich & galerie Evergreene, Geneva

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