Room for Self Reflection

 LISA LEVY SITE SPECIFIC INSTALLATION
“ROOM FOR SELF REFLECTION”

Front Room Gallery, 205 Warren Street, Hudson, NY 12401
Friday-Sunday 12-5pm and by appointment
Reception, Saturday, November 2nd, 4-6PM

The Front Room Gallery is pleased to present “Room for Self Reflection” by Lisa Levy, on view as a site specific installation in the washroom of the gallery. This conceptual artwork transforms the functional and utilitarian space of the bathroom to that of one of reflection and contemplation. The “Room for Self-Reflection” consists of three components: three selections from the “Self-Reflection Mirrors” series titled “Toilet-Paper Promises.” The promises are agreements we make and plan to keep but don’t—all individually written on toilet paper and framed. Also included is the “Souvenir of the Reproductive Years”—a sanitary napkin dispenser. Taken together, the elements create an environment designed to contemplate and amuse visitors about issues that run the gambit from life and death to the endless minutiae of everyday existence and our relationships to others.

Lisa Levy, “Toilet Paper Promises,” Open Edition $130 each

Lisa Levy Artist Statement

The Room for Self-Reflection
The bathroom as a space to be alone holds a special place for me, so I was thrilled when gallery owners Kathleen Vance and Daniel Aycock offered me the opportunity to do an installation in the bathroom of Front Room Gallery.

The Room for Self-Reflection consists of three components: three selections from the “Self-Reflection Mirrors” series titled “Toilet-Paper Promises.” The promises are agreements we make and plan to keep but don’t—all individually written on toilet paper and framed. Also included is the “Souvenir of the Reproductive Years”—a sanitary napkin dispenser. Taken together, the elements create an environment designed to contemplate and amuse visitors about issues that run the gambit from life and death to the endless minutiae of everyday existence and our relationships to others.

The bathroom is an everyday space we don’t think much about, but it's a place where we are often our most vulnerable selves. It’s where we experience privacy. If we are in a bathroom with others, they are usually our most intimate sexual and/or platonic companions. Bathrooms allow for a sense of sanctity that we often take for granted. It’s a room where we can slow down, contemplate, and fully relax. The experience of visiting the bathroom can go way beyond its function of housing a sink, toilet, shower or bathtub.

I grew up with invasive, loud, critical parents. My family lived in a small apartment—I could hear everything and my mother felt free to barge into my room at any time. The only place I really felt comfortable was in the bathroom, where she wouldn’t come in. There was a certain sanctity there. In high school, using the bathroom mirror, I made a self-portrait in oil paint—I got in trouble for staining the sink. Another time I came home after taking LSD and spent the rest of the evening in the bathtub, avoiding everyone and everything except for my mother yelling up occasionally, “Are you alright in there?”

I hope this installation makes a mundane trip to the bathroom more entertaining and thought-provoking than your everyday experience there!


LISA LEVY BIO
Lisa Levy’s life and work blurs the lines between art and comedy— from conceptual artist to comedian and performer to host of her radio talk show, “Dr. Lisa Gives a Sh!t,” on Radio Free Brooklyn. Levy’s most notable character, Dr. Lisa, a self-proclaimed psychotherapist, emerged in 2001 in “Psychotherapy LIVE!” where she “analyzed” audience volunteers in 15-minute sessions. Levy is infamous for challenging the seriousness of art by sitting naked on a toilet for two days in a gallery satirizing  Marina Abramović’s famous MoMA performance, “The Artist Is Present.” She currently curates a gallery inside the Brooklyn Comedy Collective to bring funny art by serious artists to a comedy space.

Levy began her art career at age 3½ when her parents enrolled her in MoMA’s children’s school. She graduated Syracuse University with a degree in illustration and had a career as an advertising art director before deciding to devote herself full-time to her own art. Rooted firmly in concept and humor, her art takes can employ many forms, including performance, text, illustration, and painting, as well as in any combination.

Besides fine art and performance, Levy has had some unusual notable achievements. She’s been on David Letterman’s “Stupid Pet Tricks” with her bowling hamster Bitey. She beat out over 12,000 entries in a national ad contest to win $83,000 for her ad campaign for Hebrew National. Levy was also crowned “Miss Subways 2017,” which was produced by The City Reliquary.

Levy’s work has been exhibited in numerous art fairs and galleries and has been covered with feature stories in publications such as the New York Times, The London Times, Time Out New York, The Daily News, The New York Post, Whitewall, and Dazed, as well as prestigious art publications such as ArtNet, Hyperallergic, Art Forum, and ARTnews.