LEVITATE

After presenting a monumental painting in Venice, Michelle Jung returned to her Mojave Desert studio to create smaller, more intimate works.

Levitate explores the space between material presence and perceptual experience, using the idea of levitation as a metaphor for transcending ordinary human limitations. The works consider themes of elevated awareness, transformation, and the shifting boundaries between the physical and the immaterial.

The series draws on the chiaroscuro and glazing techniques of early Renaissance painting, reinterpreted through a restrained, monochromatic palette inspired by mid-century Color Field painters. Built through successive translucent layers, the paintings are activated by changing light, creating surfaces that shift between opacity and luminosity. Their optical depth evokes the glow of a digital screen while remaining firmly rooted in the material language of paint.

This dialogue between historical process and contemporary perception lies at the heart of the work. Levitate asks how digital technologies have reshaped the way we experience light, color, nature, and reality—and whether painting can still offer a space for slower, more contemplative ways of seeing.