Misha Levin
Born Moscow, USSR
“My passion in life has, and will continue to be, painting. I have painted since I was four years old and I find the creative process truly fascinating and rewarding. My work is a reflection of my perspective on the world around me and my concerns and influences. There is often particular focus on the themes of personal and national identity, cultural degradation and every-day sexuality.
The central issue of my work has always been generated by my fascination with people, human bodies and faces; this is what I have always found so wonderful to paint. There is something about people's expressions and essence that I find fundamentally interesting. In my work I endeavor to address social and political aspects of being a Russian Jew and placing this deeply traditional life into a visual context within the 21st century. Recently, I started to use humor as a tool in my imagery to emphasize the absurd and disturbing characteristic of certain elements of Jewish Russian life.
The folk element in art has been always very attractive for me; the use of patterns and shapes along with some solid forms and figures is what I am interested in at the moment. I feel that art is becoming more and more uniformed and I believe it is very important to reflect ones personal routes and background; we should not forget where we come from.”
Education
2007-2008: Prince's Drawing School, Drawing Year Programme, Postgraduate Diploma
2003-2007: Slade School of Fine Art, BA Fine Art
2001-2003: Cherwell College, Oxford, A levels
2001-2003: Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, Life drawing course
Solo Exhibitions
02/2006: Solo exhibition, Shepherd Market Gallery, London
2003-2005: Permanent exhibition in the Gallery ?1 on Smolenskaya Embankment in Moscow
09/2002: Solo exhibition, Palace of Nations, Geneva
09/2001: Solo exhibition, Gallery 27, London
07/98: Personal exhibition was held in Colmar (France) during the 10th International Music Festival of the famous Russian musician Vladimir Spivakov.
Selected Group Exhibitions
03/2008: participating in a series of exhibition in Pushkin House in London
03/2008: Group exhibit “Dialects” at the Pushkin House in Bloomsbury, London
7-13/03/2008: Group exhibition at the 2nd Moscow International Art Festival Traditions and Modern Life in the Manezh, Moscow.
10-11/2007: SaLon Art Fair 2007 Show, an exhibition featuring the best of SaLon's Summer & Autumn 2007: Group Shows. SaLon Gallery, London.
01/2007: Group exhibition, the 1st Moscow International Art Festival "Traditions and Modern Life" in the Manezh, Moscow
2003: Group exhibit at the Art Fair “Art-Moscow” in the Manezh, Moscow
1999: Group exhibit at the USA Ambassadors residence house in Moscow
1996: Group exhibit at the Taft Museum, Cincinnati
1994: Group exhibit in the university gallery in Cincinnati, the USA
1991: Group exhibit at the Central House of Artists, Jewish Children's Artwork Festival, Moscow
1991: Group exhibit of children's artwork at the Central House of Writers, Moscow
Collections:
Levin's paintings were presented to the President of Russia Boris Eltsin, Her Majesty the Queen of Britain, Prince Michael of Kent, the Princess of Thailand and are in the collection of other eminent art collectors of Germany, the USA, Japan, France, and Switzerland.