The Ohio State University Gallery of Fine Art, 1978.
Art is not expression. Art is not communication. Art is not beauty. Art is an act of meditation; an act of investigation; an act of revelation; an act of questioning; and act of discovery. It is not an act of conclusion but of opening. It is a centripetal experience.
b. 1935 d. 2020
Site Affiliation: Back River Road / Harpo Foundation
Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1935, Ed Levine’s career as an artist, educator, and benefactor spanned many decades. As an artist, Levine explored the relationships among sculpture, landscape, photography, and architecture with numerous temporary installations and exhibitions across the country as well as permanent public commissions at Danehy Park, Cambridge, MA (Floating Stones,1991) and Pennypack Park, Philadelphia, PA (Embodying Thoreau: dwelling, sitting, watching, 2003). In 1991, he began his most significant project, Vermont Village: A Conversation between Art, Water, and the Land at the Back River Road property in South Royalton, Vermont. Situated on 10 acres, the project comprises over 50 site-specific works in the landscape. In 2006, Levine established the Harpo Foundation as an artist-endowed non-profit to support visual artists who are under-recognized by the field through grants and residency programs.
Primary Medium: Outdoor Installation, Photography
Primary Stylistic Term: Artist Built Environment
Fun Fact: Ed Levine established the Visual Arts Program at M.I.T.
Recommended Publications: Ed Levine: The Embodied Experience of Art edited by Julie Reiss (2026); Uncovering the Body: Essays on Art and the Body by Ed Levine (2005); New Land Marks: Public Art, Community, and the Meaning of Place edited by Penny Balkin Bach (2001).