“Creation,” says Arik Levy, born in Tel Aviv in 1963, “is an uncontrollable muscle.” One that has always catapulted the Parisian-by-choice into different creative directions. Artist, technician, photographer, designer, director – all these labels apply to the Israeli. His works have been exhibited in renowned galleries and museums worldwide. But his “rock” sculptures, numerous installations, limited editions and designer furniture received a particularly large public. In his projects, regardless of his preoccupation with matter, he does not lose sight of the relationship to living beings, because he knows that “the world is about people, not objects.”
The interplay of disciplines seems systemic in Levy’s work. In his mid-twenties, he opened an art and graphics studio in Israel with an attached surf store. In 1988, after his first group exhibition, he gave up life by the sea and moved to Switzerland to study at the Art Center Europe, where he graduated with honors in 1991. After a detour to Japan, the cosmopolitan moved back to Europe, where he first created stage designs for contemporary dance theater and opera.
Establishing his own studio in Paris in 2000 eventually brought him back to his other love of art and industrial design. Levy considers himself a “feeling artist.” He has made significant contributions to interior and exterior design over the years and has been consistently recognized with design awards such as the 2009 Red Dot Award for the “SH05 ARIE” shelving system for e15, the 2014 Design Plus Award for the “Wireflow” luminaire for Vibia, and the 2016 German Design Award for the “Split” chair for Ton.
