These introspective paintings explore everyday intimacy and emotion through layered oils and muted tones.
Aubrey Levinthal’s paintings capture the quiet intensity of everyday life through translucent layers of oil paint, subtle gestures, and atmospheric domestic scenes. Her work, often rooted in the personal––from family meals to moments of solitude––reflects themes of love, isolation, intimacy, and self—reflection. Using thin washes of color on wood panels, Levinthal explores the passage of time and interiority, often portraying herself and her loved ones in tender, introspective moments. Scenes like a woman gazing into a mirror, a mother and child in bed, or a solitary figure at lunch are imbued with emotion and psychological nuance.
Influenced by artists from Giotto to Bonnard and Modersohn—Becker, Levinthal plays with perspective, scale, and composition to explore perception and identity. Flowers, especially tulips and daffodils, often appear in her work as symbols of beauty and transience. Whether depicting sleep, reflection, or the quiet spaces between people, Levinthal’s paintings invite us to consider the depth in small gestures and fleeting moments. Through a delicate balance of abstraction and realism, she evokes the complexity of inner life and the resonance of lived experience, portraying humans as simultaneously strong and vulnerable, grounded in routine yet rich with unspoken emotion.
The publication Mirror Matter has been produced by Ingleby, Edinburgh, to accompany Levinthal’s first solo exhibition at the gallery in summer 2025. It features an essay by Jennifer Higgie and an interview with the artist by Hettie Judah. Designed by Jo Deans and printed by Albe De Coker, Antwerp, Mirror Matter is co—published by Ingleby, Edinburgh, and Anomie Publishing, London in an edition of 1500 copies.
Aubrey Levinthal is a painter living and working in Philadelphia in Pennsylvania. The city is important to her, she was born there in 1986, gained her BA from the Pennsylvania State University in 2008 and completed her MFA at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 2011. She has continued to make the city her home, and something of its light and color has seeped into the muted, often melancholy tones of her palette. Her work has been shown extensively in the USA, most recently at the ICA, Boston, in A Place for Me: Figurative Painting Now, and at the Flag Foundation, New York. Mirror Matter is her first full solo exhibition at Ingleby.