Platform: Eva LeWitt, Untitled (Shepherd School of Music), 2024
Mesh fabric
Commissioned by the Moody Center for the Arts, Rice University

Eva LeWitt works with manufactured synthetic elements to create sculptures and installations that engage with the architectural and environmental conditions in which they are displayed. She carefully alters commonly found manufactured materials by manipulating their color, texture and scale to create individual shapes. The different pieces are then hung by the artist in varying patterns, thereby creating tension between suppleness and rigidity, transparency and opacity, gravity and lightness. Recalling stage sets or theater curtains, her compositions of repeating forms add rhythm to the space through the interplay of shapes and color. 

Inspired by the musical and creative environment of the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, the artist chose a prominent wall inside the building for her monumental installation. The distinct sections of colorful mesh strips create movement by alternating longer and shorter parts in vibrant hues, echoing the movements of a symphony. Similarly, the repetition of elements recalls the use of recurring sounds or sonic sequences, stressing the analogies between LeWitt’s sculptural installation and musical performances at the Shepherd School of Music. 

The Moody’s groundbreaking Platform series brings temporary, site-specific projects to campus by inviting artists to respond to artworks, architectural structures, and research at Rice University. Platform: Eva LeWitt is organized by Frauke V. Josenhans, Curator, and is made possible by the Moody Center for the Arts Founders Circle.

The site-specific installation will be celebrated at an opening reception with the artist on November 22, 6- 8 pm. 

About the artist: Eva LeWitt (b. 1985, Spoleto, Italy) has been presented at the Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA; the Jewish Museum, New York, NY; the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT; and the Clark Art Institute at Williams College, Williamstown, MA. A large-scale commissioned installation of her work was on view at the New Britain Museum of American Art, CT in 2023. In 2022 LeWitt collaborated with choreographer Justin Peck to design the sets for the ballet Partita, performed by the NYC Ballet Company. LeWitt’s work is in the collection of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C. and Kistefos Museum, Jevnaker, Norway, among others. She currently lives and works in New York City.