New York, NY ­ In their first joint exhibition Swiss artists Dieter Hall and Marianne Lévai examine the ambiguous attraction of opposites. Their exhibition "Nude Nature" will run at the La MaMa La Galleria from June 17 to 27. A startling juxtaposition of two distinct but intriguingly connected artists, the exhibition brings together large-scale oil portraits by Dieter Hall and ceramic sculptures and abstract floral installations by Marianne Lévai. There will be an opening reception on June 17 from 6 to 9 pm. La MaMa La Galleria is located at 6 East First Street, New York, NY 10003.

Strikingly different in their formal approach, the artists find common ground in the notions of nudity and nature. In Dieter Hall's portraits of men, the subjects bare their personalities in the confrontation with the viewer as well as, sometimes, by shedding their clothes. Marianne Lévai's sculptures are stripped of embellishing glazes and integrated with elements of raw iron; their abstract shapes are inspired by archaic figures and natural objects. Her oversize floral installations, works of art rather than decoration, serve as a metaphorical bridge between the pictorial and sculptural pieces in the exhibition.

Both artists are residents of New York City, and have had numerous exhibitions of their work in Europe, mainly in Switzerland, as well as in the United States. Male nudes by Dieter Hall were shown at La MaMa La Galleria in August of 1997 in combination with a series of musical events titled "Seven Concerts and a Painted Orchestra," which was hailed as "daring" by the New York Times.

La MaMa La Galleria is an innovative not-for-profit art space dedicated to originality and artistic risk-taking. "Nude Nature" is made possible by: Fondation Nestlé pour l'Art; Pro Helvetia, the Arts Council of Switzerland; Associated Cut Flower Co., Inc.; Charles Jourdan USA, Inc.

For further information contact the artists:

Dieter Hall 212-254-8129
Marianne Lévai 212-353-2697

Dieter Hall

Dieter Hall's oil portraits of men, posed sometimes nude and sometimes clothed, are both playful and resistant. They look out directly at the viewer, establishing a firm sense of engagement. But at the same time, they hold something back, confounding easy assumptions of familiarity. Not the idealized types seen in erotic imagery, they are nevertheless provocative in their unclad particularity, representing an array of ages, types, and races. Relaxed and easy in their posed nakedness, they are still not at your disposal really-maybe, maybe not. The ambiguity lingers as other contradictions become apparent, such as the co-existence of sophisticated approaches to color and composition with a quirky naivete of execution, which shifts perspective awkwardly to complicate interpretation. The scale and immediacy are commanding and explicit, but the emphatic frontal directness of the portraits is softened and restrained by the paint handling, oil rubbed into the canvas with force, leaving a sense of flattened dryness, more like pastel than oil. There are no splashy gestures or virtuosic passages-rather, a muted but rapt attention to the subject's singularity.

The subjects are all men the artist has known for years. Their various personalities are suggested by details of grooming and clothing, but they are situated in an abstracted space, deferring to the portrait convention of an isolated encounter. Some of the subjects could be dignitaries, or some other kind of assured professional accustomed to respect, but then, the viewer wonders, why are they posed so explicitly and intimately and described with such a warm and emotional palette? It feels as if the artist had created an aura of formality for the subversive pleasure of breaking it down and teasing out traces of susceptibility from the inscrutable social mask.

What is being offered is a simultaneous private and public image, intellectual and sensual pleasure given together. The subjects return the artist's complex regard. Both seem willing to address the layers of complexity to be found in a heightened social encounter.
They are open to the possibilities of contact and revelation.   Allen Frame

Marianne Lévai

For her sculptural work Marianne Lévai uses clay and iron, two of the most ancient materials known to mankind. Yet she fashions her art in a manner that defies any historical or cultural classification and pushes the traditional boundaries of ceramic sculpture.

Some of her objects are derived from vessels, others have completely transcended that primitive starting point. Their abstract shapes may allude to natural objects, or even human forms, but sometimes they are closer to artifacts such as tools or weapons. In encompassing the martial and the vulnerable she reflects on a fundamental duality, often made salient by elements of phallic and mammarian/vaginal imagery.

Marianne Lévai's objects become full-fledged sculptures only in combination with iron or steel or occasionally wood. Typically, the metal elements are scrap or other found objects, but recently she has used industrial tubing, which she integrates with the fired clay. By combining these dissimilar materials the objects express an acute tension between brittle fragility and ductile malleability. In tall columns, ceramic sections are put under palpable strain by the weight of the steel. Yet at first glance, the risky duality between the breakable and the unbreakable is easily missed, because the respective surfaces of the materials render it invisible. The artist applies metal oxides to her clay, which, when fired, assume similar textures and hues as the raw iron.

Among Lévai's smaller sculptures a few are shaped in incredibly delicate petal-like forms, resembling carnivorous plants. In her floral installations the artist brings those fossilized flowers to life. On the theoretical foundation of the Sogetsu school of Japanese Ikebana, she expands the art of flower arrangement into free-style room installations. Often oversized, her floral sculptures refer to their location and the context in which they are created. Additionally, they reflect time: after a few days live flowers wither and die, whereas the clay flowers «live» on.   Martin Suter