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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. Oil paint is a type of slow-drying paint that consists of particles of pigment suspended in a drying oil, commonly linseed oil. The viscosity of the paint may be modified by the addition of a solvent such as turpentine or white spirit, and varnish may be added to increase the glossiness of the dried film. Oil paints have been used in Europe since the 12th century for simple decoration, but were not widely adopted as an artistic medium until the early 15th century. Common modern applications of oil paint are in finishing and protection of wood in buildings and exposed metal structures such as ships and bridges. Its hard-wearing properties and luminous colors make it desirable for both interior and exterior use on wood and metal. Due to its slow-drying properties, it has recently been used in paint-on-glass animation. Thickness of coat has considerable bearing on time required for drying: thin coats of oil paint dry relatively quickly. Jonathan Viner (b. June 1976) is an American painter based in Brooklyn, NY. He received a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1998. Working primarily in oils, he fuses a deep respect for the tradition and craft of painting with an appreciation for the dynamic pluralism of current art practice. His conceptually ambiguous, precisely articulated hybrids of portraiture and narrative assert the right of the artist to exceed prevailing institutional conventions in pursuit of highly individualized artistic vision. Jonathan LeVine Gallery is pleased to present Target Practice, a solo exhibition featuring an exciting collection of new paintings and drawings by Jonathan Viner. This will be the artist’s second solo show at the gallery, and his largest exhibition to date. Viner’s work has continued to mature in both form and scope and in his newest body of work he delves into themes of vulnerability, power, and survival. The artist chose to call his exhibit Target Practice not only because it fits the subject matter of this work, but also because it functions as a metaphor for his time in the studio. “Imagine waking up, going alone to a secluded field, and shooting at targets all day, every day, for your entire life,” he recently said. “That’s basically what I do.”