Roberta Levitow grew up in Los Angeles, California, in a family of animation cartoonists. She had a 45-year career as a theatre director and producer both nationally and internationally. At the same time, she studied art at the Otis College of Art & Design with a focus on traditional egg-tempera icon painting. Through her work with the Sundance Institute Theatre Program’s international initiatives, she was exposed to icons from East Africa and the Middle East/North Africa. In 2020, Levitow began creating secular contemporary icons that chronicled the years of COVID-19 pandemic lock-down and isolation. Her paintings have been seen in a range of exhibitions in Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and beyond.
About
To make sense of our often-senseless world, I fuse eclectic influences. Born into a family of cartoonists, I became a theatre director. My lifelong commitment is to the power of storytelling to confer and challenge meaning. I work in multiple mediums — both performance and visual arts — but with a consistent purpose: to examine contemporary issues using unexpected references to create a record of our time. Art studies drew me towards traditional icons. I am inspired by the style and technique of traditional religious icons. I use tempera paint on panels to merge historic symbolic elements with contemporary secular vocabulary. In doing so, I blend ancient narratives with popular culture and surreal landscapes. Using story fragments, I build theatrical tableaux that bear witness to the social challenges of 21st century life.