CHARACTERS

New Solo Art Exhibition of Norman Leibovitch at the Sidney and Gertrude Zack Gallery Jewish Community Centre Vancouver, B.C

Paintings by NORMAN LEIBOVITCH (1913-2002)
Opening Night Reception
Thursday, June 19, 2008 • 7 to 9 pm
Late Artist's son and daughter in attendance • Free Admission • Everyone is welcome
Exhibit runs until Sunday, July 13, 2008

 

“Harmony”

I have been asked many times why I dedicate myself so completely to painting – I do it because I must. Life has meaning to me through my work. My interest in life is based on my art and it is the connection I have with reality. –Norman Leibovitch

Norman Leibovitch's exhibit, Characters, is a selection of his narrative and portrait works spanning the decades from the 1940's to the year 2001. Informed by his upbringing by Montreal Jewish immigrants, the works reflect a variety of Jewish themes including ‘Shtetl life’ and ‘post Diaspora alienation’. The art depicts a world peopled by the solitary, the disconnected and, possibly, the forgotten. It's as if the characters inhabit internal worlds, which remain hidden from the viewer's eye. Even those figures depicted in relation to others, appear to gaze past each other into some type of impossible longing. Although this collection seems to grow out of a melancholic sensibility, many paintings hint at optimism and redemption through the artist's use of colour and his treatment of light. Although one senses sorrow, the Jewish capacity for endurance and acceptance of irony is apparent.