FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
LOS ANGELES, CA.

The Paul Kopeikin Gallery is pleased to present the first West coast exhibitions by emerging New York artists Jeffrey Milstein and Ethan Levitas. Their series, Aircraft and Untitled/This is just to say will open together on November 19th and run through December 23rd, 2005.  A reception will take place on Saturday, November 19 from 6:00 to 8:00pm.  The reception is free and open to the public.  The gallery is located at 6150 Wilshire Blvd, just west of Fairfax.  For information call 323-937-0765.

Jeffrey Milstein is a New York based photographer who started at University of California Berkeley as an architect. His recent series entitled Aircraft has caught the eye of the art world, and has gained notoriety from various photography awards and publications as well as from various collectors and galleries.

His large-scale photographs are not of model airplanes nor are they retouched.  His passion for this project has led Mr. Milstein to LAX where the runway meets the edge of the airport.  Outside the fenced field, he waits for approaching airplanes and snaps crystal clear shots of the incoming beasts.  The planes become portraits as such, all seemingly leaning in for their close-up. In the photograph, the plane stands upright and alone as if in a studio with a backdrop, taking on a new persona.

Jeffrey Milstein has won numerous awards, including the 2005 PDN award for digital photography Photo Review, APA, and Graphis.  Mr. Milstein is also in collections including the Center for Photography and the George Eastman House.

Ethan Levitas is a New York based photographer distinguished for his innovative portrait series. Levitas’ photographs stretch the boundaries of traditional portraiture and frame the space between self and other. With his newest work, Untitled/This is just to say, he presents a groundbreaking view of one of America’s most infamous public places, the New York City Subway.

Untitled/This is just to say is a series of color photographs of New York City subway trains and riders. At first glance, Levitas seems to present portraits of steel subway cars, each with its own rich and textured surface, framed by a bright white background. A closer view, however, reveals a second layer: framed within the train windows are the individual portraits of the passengers.  It is a New York story, born and bred, and yet the images reach beyond locality in their metaphor and relevance to the American consciousness today. Levitas is offering us a unique narrative on connection, dislocation, and identity.  As Levitas has said, “this work is a portrait, not simply of people or place, but also of conversations that would and should be.”

Born and based in New York City, Levitas has lived and lectured extensively in Japan, where he published his first book of photographs, Conversations about Identity. He is a graduate of Cornell University and is the recipient of the 2005 Photo District News (PDN) Photo Annual Award, the 2005 IPA Award, the 2002 NYFA Fellowship in Photography.