Julia Levitina

About

Julia Levitina was born and raised in Odessa, Ukraine, and currently lives and works in Philadelphia. She creates powerful and elegant figurative sculptures in bronze that aim to capture extraordinary in the ordinary. Levitina personally attends to her entire craft process, from clay to bronze, including metal casting and finishing, in her studio.

Levitina has held solo exhibitions of her bronze sculptures and drawings nationally at Brookgreen Gardens, Frederick Meijer Sculpture Gardens, Noyes Museum, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and Catherine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club, and internationally at City Hall of Odessa, Ukraine, St Jean des Arts, La Maison Verte in France and Foundation Taylor in Paris. Levitina’s bronzes can be found in public and private collections in US and in Europe, including La Salle University Art Museum and Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in PA, Thomas More Law Center in Ann Arbor, Flanders House in New York City, Jewish Museum in Budapest and Van Mieghem Museum and City Hall in Antwerp, among others.

Julia Levitina is a recipient of Alex J. Ettl Grant, highest honor bestowed by National Sculpture Society upon a figurative sculptor of exceptional merit, in addition to earning multiple prizes and awards nationally, most recently Philadelphia Sculptors Grant, and internationally, notably Foundry Prize from prestigious Foundation Taylor in Paris, among others. In recent years, Julia Levitina has completed a number of large commissioned sculptures in bronze, including St Joan of Arc for Thomas More Law Center, ¾ life-size nude for private garden in Haverford, PA, and an over life-size figurative bronze sculpture of St Joseph with Christ Child for Georgetown University’s Main Campus in Washington, D.C. She recently held a solo exhibition of her bronze sculptures, titled Fundamentals of Flight, in Philadelphia, and contributed her work to Art for Peace exhibition in Los Angeles intended to benefit her countrymen in Ukraine.

I am a contemporary sculptor reflecting on contemporary themes. I am inspired, challenged, moved to my deepest core by the beauty present in ordinary existence. I strive to convey the awe I experience through my sculptures, so that we may return, the artist and the viewer alike, to a richer, deeper human experience.

I sculpt figures and animals in terra cotta and bronze. I am a craftsman as much as I am a fine artist. I do everything myself, from start to finish: I mix my own clay, make metal armatures, mold my finished pieces, prepare waxes and ceramic shell; I then pour and finish my bronzes at my studio all the way through patina.

Recurring themes in my work are a kind of a quest for wisdom, a nod to the disappearing old world, an attempt to resuscitate beauty created, in the largest sense, by our bodies and beings. I try to capture everyday moments that are at once transient and transcendent, that may easily go unnoticed, yet turn out to have universal significance when perceived.

My art is always evolving. It is always becoming. I am continuously exploring and questioning as I create. It is important to me that my sculpture does its job of communicating ideas, of illuminating a certain kind of truth, of contributing to the world in honest and meaningful ways. Truly great art is capable of transcending social, historical and cultural constraints of its place and time to capture something that is universal to us all: the strife and the triumph of human condition. It is the highest form of hope.

— Julia Levitina

Selected Exhibitions

2023        Under the Influence | Contemporary Artists and the Masters Who Inspire Them, Somerville Manning Gallery, Greenville, DE

2023        Моя Герника (Ma Guernica), Exposition individuelle, Galerie Mahler-Lopes, Marnay-sur-Seine, France

2023        Моя Герника (My Guernica), Solo Exhibition of Sculpture and Drawings, Stanek Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

2022        Art for Peace: Benefit Exhibition for Ukraine, Ukrainian Cultural Center, Los Angeles, CA

2021        Fundamentals of Flight: Solo Exhibition of Sculpture, Stanek Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

2020        Studio Works in Progress, National Sculpture Society, Online Exhibition

2020        Letters from the Studio, Philadelphia Sculptors, Online Exhibition

2019        Salon Bol d’Art Dreux, Invitational Exhibition, Dreux, France

2019        St Jean des Arts, Exposition de Sculpture, St Jean le Thomas, Manche, France

2019        Emerging Stars in American Sculpture, Rainey Sculpture Pavilion, Brookgreen Gardens,

2019        Murrels Inlet, South Carolina

2019        Art of Drawing, Invitational Exhibition, Stanek Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

2018        City by the Sea: Two-person exhibition with Julia Sidorskaya, In Memoriam, Stanek Gallery

2018        Winter Collective, Hugo Galerie, New York, NY

2018        Julia LEVITINA: Sculptures, Galerie de Buci, Paris, France

2017        Les Artistes de la Maison Verte présentent Julia LEVITINA, Marnay-sur-Seine, France

2017        “Ne reveillez pas Junipère et quelques autres conversations avec A. Rodin à l’occasion de son centenaire,” (Exposition individuelle des sculptures et des dessins), I-Gallery, Paris        

2017        “Rodin and the Contemporary Figurative Tradition,” Frederick Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, Grand Rapids, MI

2017        Exposition des Lauréats, Fondation Taylor, Paris, France

2017        Spring Collective, Hugo Galerie, New York, NY

2017        Animal I Become, Invitational Exhibition curated by Treacy Ziegler, Stanek Gallery

2015 – 2016
The PAFA Foundry: 30 Years of Casting, (Invitational Juried Exhibition,) PAFA Alumni Gallery,   Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA

Chuchoter à travers la rivière, Invitational Exhibition curated by Hugo Galerie New York, Philadelphia, PA

St Jean des Arts, 25 ans, 25 artistes, (Invitational Juried Exhibition), St Jean le Thomas, Normandie (Manche)

“Leap of Faith,” (Invitational Exhibition curated by Hilarie Hawley), Stanek Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

Winter Exhibition, Axelle Fine Arts, New York, NY

Sculptures en bronze et dessins, (Exposition de Noël), Galérie l’Oeil du Prince, Paris, France

Invitational Exhibition, Axelle Fine Arts Galerie, New York, NY

National Sculpture Society 82nd Juried Awards Exhibition, Brookgreen Gardens, SC

Women-Artists of Philadelphia, (Invitational exhibition), Artists’ House Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

LEVITINA-BITMAN-MOREH (Solo exhibition of sculpture and drawings), Fondation Taylor, Paris

Selected Awards and Honors

2023
Visiting Artist, Les Amis du Musée Camille Claudel, Nogent-sur-Seine, France
Select Fifty, Portrait Society of America International Portrait Competition finalist

2021 – 2022
Member, Ateliers de Création et d’Expression Artistique, Marnay-sur-Seine, France
Sculpture Faculty, Fleisher Art Memorial, Philadelphia, PA

2020
Philadelphia Sculptors Grant Recipient

2019
Visiting Artist and Lecturer, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
Visiting Artist and Lecturer, Georgetown University, Washington, DC
Visiting Critic, Cheltenham Center for the Arts, Elkins Park, PA
Visiting Artist, Montferrier-sur-Lez, France
Visiting Artist and Lecturer, Paris Academy of Art, Paris, France

2018
Visiting Artist and Lecturer, American Academy of Sacred Arts, Philadelphia, PA
Visiting Artist and Lecturer, Fonderia Ciglia e Carrai, Florence Academy of Art, Florence, Italy
Visiting Artist and Lecturer, Paris Academy of Art, Paris, France

2016 – 2017
Foundry Prize, Le Prix de la Fonderie de la Plaine, Fondation Taylor, Paris, France
Award commission, St Joseph With Christ Child, bronze, 7’, Georgetown University, Washington, DC

2013 – 2015
Alex J. Ettl Grant for Figurative Sculpture, National Sculpture Society (NSS), USA
Award commission, Girl in the War (Ste Jeanne d’Arc), Thomas More Law Center, Ann Arbour, MI
Fondation Taylor Exhibition Prize, Paris, France
Merit Stipend, Fondation Ténot, Camac Art Centre, Marnay-sur-Seine, France
Visiting Artist and Lecturer, Eugeen van Mieghem Museum, Antwerp, Belgium
Merit Stipend, Fondation Ténot, Camac Art Centre, Marnay-sur-Seine, France
Visiting Artist, International Artist Residency, Camac Art Centre, Marnay-sur-Seine, France
Visiting Artist and Lecturer, Flanders House, New York, NY
Finalist, 7^th International Figurative Painting and Sculpture Competition, Barcelona, Spain
1^st Place, Sculpture, Ex Arte Equinus: International Journal of Horse Art
Award commission, Eugeen van Mieghem Museum, Antwerp, Belgium

Selected Public Collections

La Salle University Art Museum, Philadelphia, PA
Georgetown University, Washington, DC
Thomas More Law Center, Ann Arbor, MI
Jewish Museum, Budapest, Hungary
Victaulic Guest House, Easton, PA
Eugeen Van Mieghem Museum, Antwerp, Belgium
City Hall of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
Camac Centre d’Art, Marnay-sur-Seine, Champagne-Ardenne , France
American Friends of the Red Star Line Headquarters, New York, NY
The Flanders House at the New York Times Building, New York, NY
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Permanent Collection, Philadelphia, PA
Fellowship of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
National Museum of American Jewish History, Philadelphia, PA
University of the Arts Gershman Y Center, Philadelphia, PA
Crefeld School, Philadelphia, PA
Philadelphia Trust, Philadelphia, PA
Noyes Museum, Oceanville, NJ
Jewish Community Center, Washington, DC

Education

2005-07     Schuykill Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA

2003-05     The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA

2001-02     Sorbonne Université, Paris, France

1999-03     BA, Magna Cum Laude, Georgetown University, Washington, DC

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