Art advisor, Todd Levin, moonlights as a curator now and then. Now is one of those times as his Night Scented Stock prepares to open next week at Marianne Boesky’s Upper East Side venue:
Marianne Boesky Gallery proudly presents Night Scented Stock, a group exhibition exploring the myriad stratagems artists employ to engage the phantasmagoric impulse in their work. While subject matter in this exhibition spans a wide gambit from the grotesque to the bucolic, each artist’s unique creation incites our imagination with furtive potency recalling the nocturnal flower from which this exhibition takes its name. Once dusk falls and moonlight breathes life into its withered limbs, the Night Scented Stock emits an intoxicating aroma which lures a panoply of the night’s creatures – insects, bats, moths and birds –with its mysterious scent.
This exhibition investigates the phantasmagorical impulse in art over the past 500 years and how that impulse intersects with formalist tendencies in recent art history. Artworks by over 75 artists are featured, including examples of fine arts, decorative arts, applied arts, illustrative arts, and ephemera.