Cloud of Ghosts

Jonathan Levine Projects is committed to new and cutting edge art. Our roots go back to 1995 when LeVine's life-long participation in punk and underground music grew into a curatorial experiment with the visual culture that surrounded him. In 2005, he opened Jonathan LeVine Gallery in the Chelsea district of New York City and had great success nurturing the careers of many celebrated artists. In 2017, the gallery relocated to Jersey City with a newfound focus on community and collaboration. The newly named Jonathan LeVine Projects aims to create engaging programs and interesting partnerships beyond the traditional gallery space. With an eye towards honoring and connecting with the history and context of Post War art, Jonathan LeVine Projects explores the terrain of the high/low and everything in between. Born in Los Angeles in 1960, this first generation Polish-American artist has become one of the most recognized illustrative artists of our age. Gary received a degree in Communications from UCLA, and worked in NYC as a commercial illustrator for 10 years. His illustrations have been featured in such diverse publications as the New Yorker, Time, Esquire, Rolling Stone, the New York Times, Forbes, Blab, LA Magazine, Reader's Digest, Atlantic Monthly and Newsweek. He created the artwork for Cranium, voted "Game of the Year" two years in a row by the American Internation Toy Fair and worked as the illustrator for "I Don't Need to Have Children, I Date Them: 23 Child Psychology Techniques to Use on Boys of All Ages". He has also been featured in American Illustration, AIGA, Print, The Society of Illustrators, Humor and The 100 Show. Although Gary has achieved reknown in many fields, he is probably most well known for his work as the creator and executive producer of "Teacher's Pet", a story based on his real-life dog, Hubcaps, which ran from 2000-2002, and was made into a full-length feature film in 2004. Gary has received many awards throughout his career, including the Emmy for Best Daytime As the title suggests, works in Walking through Walls convey the concept of breaking through imposed limitations and boundaries, in society as well as the art world. Visually, Baseman emphasizes “the wall” through a floral wallpaper motif, compositional divisions of space and the transcendence of his subjects between mediums. While previous exhibitions have been festive and celebratory in nature, Baseman’s work takes a more reflective, somber tone in this show. With the recent passing of his father, the artist’s deep sense of loss has resulted in darker, subdued colors, adding shades of gray to his previously bright palette. In the new series of work, Baseman introduces a figure named Lil Miss Boo, a young girl wearing a homemade ghost costume. The character is based on a child in an old black and white photograph, one of over 2000 vintage photographs of masked subjects in the artist’s personal collection, garnered over the last 20 years. The collection has often been a source of crea