Tobin Levy
Artist Statement
“Life is pretty much an estate sale waiting to happen,” says Tobin Levy, describing the origins of her chimera sculptures — amalgamations of ceramic dolls and animals that were once staples in curio cabinets around the world. “I imagine them spending decades as objects of adoration and then ending up in a two-dollar bin.” Their value is not lost on Levy, who rescues and recontextualizes these nostalgia-inducing relics. Using cutting tools, handmade sculptural addenda, and supplemental colors and clay, she transforms the discarded keepsakes into original, unabashedly anthropomorphized works of art.
As characters, Levy’s chimeras are meant to be whimsical and approachable, fostering dialogues that any viewer can engage in without fear of “getting it wrong.” The biographies of these new creations are inherently blank pages — they beg for attributes, idiosyncrasies, a backstory. “She had a rough one last night,” remarked one viewer, standing in front of Levy’s 2025 Holly from Fresno. “She definitely woke up with no keys, no shoes, no phone, no wallet. I’ve been there…” Levy, who immediately transcribed the quote on her studio wall, couldn’t have been happier.
Most of Levy’s sculptural pieces are namesakes, paying unconventional homage to friends and family, living and dead. The practice points to weightier deliberations at the heart of the series, which was born out of a broken family heirloom (a 1950s Lefton rabbit) that narrowly escaped a landfill. “I wanted but couldn’t have children, so I contemplate the fate of my belongings and my memories far too often,” says Levy. For her, naming each piece is a way to celebrate the people who, over the decades, made an indelible impact on her life. In this way, each piece becomes a kind of memory vessel, filled with stories that, in another life, might have become family lore.
“I still have to remind myself that, even without the prospect of grandkids and despite the certitude of age-related aches and pains, there is beauty in the passage of time,” says Levy. The proof is in the ever-changing shadows her chimeras cast throughout the day when displayed, as intended, in natural light atop floating shelves.
Biography
About Tobin Levy
Tobin Levy (b. 1975) is an artist, writer, editor, and creative consultant. An Austin native, Tobin attended Barnard College at Columbia University and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in English and Art History. After extended stays in both New York City and Marfa, Texas, she returned to Austin, where she lives with her dog, Mr. Novak; a beast of a tortoiseshell cat, Gertrude Stein; and Burt Reynolds, an orange tabby and beguiling master of the art of repose.
