Karya Levni
Selected Works
Oil paint on aluminium composite panel, circular, 30 cm / 12 in. diameter , 2025
Mastercopy, Heirloom Quality
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Jean-Léon Gérôme's Head of a Woman is possibly his most replicated work. The gentle tilt of the head, the beautiful horns, the contrast of porcelain skin against vivid red hair. It is a painting that stuns with quiet precision.
Gérôme was a leading figure of French academic painting, a tradition obsessed with invisible labour, where the evidence of the artist's hand disappears entirely in service of the painting. Countless layers of glazes are built to achieve a painting that reflects the light and glows on its own. The result is seamless transitions, luminous skin and a painting with a sculpture-like depth.
This mastercopy marked a breakthrough in Karya's practice: her first piece from the 19th century French academic tradition, and her first work on ACM panels with the highest quality paints, achieving a new level of technical excellence in oil paints and in durability.
This piece comes with a complimentary frame.
Please note that the piece is in the drying phase and can not be shipped immediately.
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Oil on loose canvas sheet, 29.5 cm x 21.5 cm / 11.6 in. x 8.5 in., 2025
Concept Sketch, Original Work
A young woman in a bathroom, stitching shut a secondary set of eyes on her face. Her expression only hints at her attention to detail. She is unbothered by this grotesque task, almost lost in the routine.
Karya uses herself as the model while exploring the shared experience of beauty earned through labour. Drawing on Vigée Le Brun's powdery palette of muted pinks and soft blues, she paints a domestic ritual where historic feminine defiance meets the quiet violence of contemporary womanhood.
Oil on loose canvas sheet, 19 cm x 13 cm / 7.5 in. x 5 in., early 2024
Oil study from life
Alla prima study of a golden apple. Karya’s studio, easel and herself are visible in the warped reflection. This study was completed in under four hours as a personal challenge to explore distortion, material, and form.
Oil on MDF wood panel, circa 25 cm x 25 cm / 10 in. x 10 in., June 2022
Mastercopy and Methodical Study
Pieter Claesz is an old master among the most noteworthy practitioners of Vanitas, a genre of painting that translates a human life into a poetry of objects. Within these still lives, a human being is displaced from their face to their possessions: the quill as a sign of authorship, the compass as a life oriented around travel, and the lemon for the false appearance of sweetness and the bitter soul that hides within... Vanitas painting captured what portraits could not: the essence of a person through their morals, bonds, skills and feats.
Karya has long been drawn to the visual literature of Vanitas, finding it to be a truer representation of a person. This mastercopy functions not as a mere imitation but as a close study. Through it, she familiarises herself with Claesz’s silent colour palettes and his calibration of light against opacity.
Oil paint on loose canvas sheet, 24 cm x 18 cm / 9.5 in. x 7 in., early 2024
Oil Sketch, Colour Study
This study explores the vibrant and pastel colour palette of Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun's self-portrait. Vigée Le Brun was an 18th-century portraitist and one of the most celebrated painters of her era, known for her luminous flesh tones and delicate fabrics.
On the top left corner, Karya's colour mix samples can be seen. The study blurs detail to focus on light and form, but Karya betrays its purpose while painting the lace, mostly out of her personal delight in painting sheer textiles.
Portrait photo of Karya Levni featured in the page header was shot by Idris Aleshinloye.