Professor Shortlisted for Aesthetica Art Prize

Assistant Professor Andrew Leventis has been shortlisted for the Aesthetica Art Prize. The Aesthetica Art Prize is an international competition founded in 2007 by U.K.-based Aesthetica magazine. Each year the competition attracts thousands of entries from across the globe. Leventis is one of just 19 artists to be shortlisted.

Leventis was recognized for two works created in the early months of the pandemic: Freezer Box (Vanitas), pictured above, and Refrigerator (Vanitas). Both photorealist paintings depict the contents of his refrigerator during that time, creating a contemporary reflection on the age-old vanitas theme in art, which emphasizes the impermanence of life and the futility of earthly pleasures.

“The works reflect on the mass panic induced by the Covid-19 and how the idea of ‘stocking up’ was so crucial and almost primal, in a notion to survive,” he wrote in an artist statement.

The paintings will be presented in the Aesthetica Art Prize Exhibition at the York Art Gallery (U.K.) from May 28 through September 5 and included in the publication, Future Now: 100 Contemporary Artists.