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Website: alldezign.biz Instagram: @alldezign
There’s a moment Alan Levine describes that probably sounds familiar to anyone who’s ever made something with their hands: you start with a shape, you add a piece, you step back, you look, and somehow the next move just reveals itself.
“It’s like drawing with wood,” he says, “but it takes a lot more time.”
Alan is a retired sculptor, though “retired” means doing a lot of work, since he’s at NextFab essentially every day. After decades of running a furniture and cabinetry shop, he made a decision a few years back: no more cabinets. Only sculpture. And he hasn’t looked back.
Alan knew he wanted to be a sculptor since he was a kid. He was the kind of child who gravitated toward building sets, always putting things together into something new. He studied at Tyler School of Art, earning a BA in design and eventually a master’s in fine arts, though his path to graduate school was anything but direct.
After his BA, he spent years in the jewelry industry, designing tiny wax models for earrings and costume jewelry, then doing technical work like casting rings. He eventually went back to school at night while working full-time, landing a scholarship at Tyler that combined teaching and mechanical work. His job? Running the woodshop. It was a craft he largely learned on the fly.
“I didn’t know a lot about woodworking,” he admits, “but I ran the woodshop and learned on the job.”
After graduating, he started selling wall sculptures out of a shop on 4th Street in Queen Village. Then one day, a customer asked if he could make a cabinet. He said yes. That, yes, launched a long career in sculptural furniture and cabinetry. It was beautiful, design-forward work, but not quite the thing he’d always imagined for himself.
Five or six years ago, he drove past NextFab and stopped in to see what was going on. He decided it was exactly what he needed. He gave up furniture for good and returned fully to sculpture.
“I always wanted to be a sculptor,” he says, “and now I am. It’s a great feeling.”
Alan’s sculptures are abstract, three-dimensional, and entirely intuitive. He doesn’t sketch them out beforehand. He starts with a base shape, something that can stand, and begins building up from there, adding pieces until the work tells him it’s done.
His earlier sculptures were inspired by Kandinsky’s paintings, translating two-dimensional abstract forms into wood and acrylic. These days, he’s drawn to repurposed and exotic materials: CNC cutoffs from other makers at NextFab, tapered hexagonal legs from a friend’s old furniture shop, thick boards of padauk, bubinga, and purple heart sourced from a specialty supplier. The wood itself is often the starting point.
“The inspiration comes from the wood,” he says. “I look at it, and ideas start forming.”
His current body of work is leaning toward natural exotic woods with and without paint. He lets the grain and color of the materials carry part of the visual weight. The painted elements are meant to be playful, colorful pieces that make the finished sculpture feel joyful. He recently completed a piece built around a square with a circle cut from it, then layered with additional elements. All of his work gets a few coats of clear lacquer to preserve the beauty of the wood.
One thing Alan is deliberate about: he doesn’t want you to see a bird. Or an animal. Or anything recognizable, if he can help it. The goal is pure abstraction; something that draws you in, makes you look longer, and leaves you intrigued rather than certain.
“I want people to get joy just from looking at it,” he says.
Alan has a solo show planned for October at the Philadelphia International Institute on Race Street, a small gallery with a lot of room to let the work breathe. He’s had a one-man show before, about six years ago, and sold a great deal of work. He’s ready for that feeling again.
Most of his current pieces are at his home, with several on display at NextFab. His sculptures range from $1,500 to $4,000, and he’s available for installation in clients’ homes. For Alan, the goal this year isn’t primarily about sales.
“I want people to have these things,” he says. “I want to get them out there.”
You can find Alan’s work online at alldezign.biz and on Instagram at @alldezign.