Buster Levi Gallery is pleased to present Syncopated, paintings by Martee Levi at 121 Main Street in Cold Spring, New York. The exhibition will run from October 7 through October 30, 2022.  The opening for the show will be on Friday October 7, 2022 from 6-8pm.

Martee Levi’s new paintings are a response to jazz. For Levi, the structure of jazz is rhythm and movement, especially the jazz she loves; New Orleans jazz that eventually developed  into the swing music of artists like Benny Goodman. Trying to translate the rhythms of jazz has preoccupied Levi for a long time.  The golden section and the grid are the structural elements that she uses to create the dynamics of her compositions. This exhibition will feature paintings that address jazz from two different perspectives. In one series, she has emphasized syncopation more than a regular rhythm. In Untitled 2021, Levi stretches and bends her geometric shapes adding occasional textures as points of emphasis in unexpected places. Further, the bent and elongated shapes are reminiscent of notes stretched in a solo. While the work is solidly  constructed, it feels improvised rather than tied to strict compositional rules. In the other series included in this exhibition, Notes from Lou; the emphasis on rhythm is more subtle, quieter. Whereas the Syncopation paintings relate to improvised solos, these paintings relate to the polyrhythms that provide the foundation for the music. Levi sums it up best when she states: “What excites me when I work is the way the work reveals itself, the process by which the relationship among the various elements…form, line and color...unfolds, bringing these elements together in an image of the wholeness that is the ultimate truth underlining all experience.”

Buster Levi Gallery is open Saturday and Sunday from 12-6 pm. 

For more information: busterlevigallery.com.

Artist website: marteelevi.com