Underground Art Purveyor.
Art dealer and curator ROM LEVY started to evolve in the street-art world early on. Since 2005, he has been meeting and working with artists who were soon to be internationally renowned, as street art boomed in the following years. On a gloomy winter night in 2009, he launched the Street Art News online magazine which thrived for many years as the global platform for Urban Art, before Instagram and other large-scale media were created. As a pioneer and essential hub, it allowed for many connections to be made between street artists throughout the world, and for remote audiences to gain visual access to the art located in major cities. This experience led Rom to dedicate himself fully to a range of activities in contemporary art, including the organization of public art events and murals, exhibition curating, art dealing, and printmaking.
From Paris to London to the United States, ROM LEVY’s projects evolved gradually from a do-it-yourself curating practice into a more institutional and professionalized form. Right from the start, his ambition was to push the boundaries of what can be done, experimenting with his own tools the ways in which one could play with the surfaces of the city. Over the years, he has organized hundreds of murals across all continents, in cities including Paris, London, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New Delhi, Moscow, Bali, Miami, Arkansas, Puerto Rico, New York, Berlin and Shanghai. This led him to work with the government of Dubai, where he is currently based, working on the Dubai Street Museum project. Entering the business of public art in urban planning on a global scale, working on different continents and with different cultures, Levy has been led to question the sites where the murals are painted and the impact of art on the modification of urban areas. After the landmark exhibitions Animal (Borondo solo exhibition, London Newcastle Project Space, 2015) and Between the lines (group exhibition, Dubai, 2016), he decided to give a more prominent place to independent projects driven by art history and theory.
Levy is also starting to expand the limits of contemporary art, by supporting artists through commissions, residencies and a growing collection of over 500 artworks by some of the most prestigious contemporary artists, such as Allison Zuckermann, Ana Benaroya, Yukimasa Ida, Javier Calleja, Anna Park, Edgar Plans, Chen Fei, Oli Epp, Madsaki, Zhang Zipiao, Travis Fish, Laurens Legiers, Blair Whiteford and more….
Besides producing public art, Rom Levy owns the RexRomae gallery (London) and Volery Gallery (Dubai). This allows him to work with all types of artists on international and ephemeral exhibitions and events, most of which are organized in temporary locations, in cities as varied as Los Angeles, London, Berlin, Dubai and Tokyo. The events are conceived as experiences that move across cultures more than as traditional exhibitions. They thus replicate the “ethos” of street art as catalyzers for dialogues on different levels of society. Levy has also developed a printmaking activity through Fine Art Editions, which seeks to produce accessible and affordable works of art. In sum, two fundamental dynamics inform his activities: a popular and accessible idea of street art, and an innovative perspective from which his projects expand.
Following his intuition, ROM LEVY constantly seeks to be one step ahead, looking out for the latest developments and tendencies in Urban & Contemporary art.
VOLERY
Founded in 2020 by Rom Levy, Volery Gallery promotes artists whose art is best described as the New Contemporary Wave. Established in Dubai, the hub of business in the Middle East and Africa, the gallery features the most prominent international artists.
STREETARTNEWS
StreetArtNews was founded in November 2009 when Founder & Editor-in-Chief Rom Levy announced his plans for starting a publication devoted to Urban Art that would cater to what he called “Art Geeks”. In the ensuing years, with formidable contributions by a unique editorial staff, StreetArtNews became a trusted source for Art news, exhibitions analysis and reviews, lifestyle and nearly everything else found in between layers of paint.
SAN PROJECTS AGENCY
SAN Projects functions as an art agency teamed up with interdisciplinary artists, curators, producers, videographers, and creators, we bring art, education and entertainment to the public through our public art programs. SAN Projects is based between London & Dubai, and taps into an international art culture, recognizing its deep roots and integrating it with the growing globalized community.
REXROMAE
RexRomae is an urban contemporary art gallery project that began in 2013. The gallery’s innovative schedule of pop-up exhibitions in vacant spaces across London, Los Angeles or Hong-Kong replicates the ephemeral ethos of urban art.
ARTPORT
Established in 2020, ArtPort supplies limited high-quality editions and prints from a range of popular contemporary artists. Created around the theme of traveling, ArtPort aims to have people on board to travel through the art world and to bring it to their homes. The artworks come in high end packaging with graphic elements that are inspired by aviation and are used for special editions and releases.
KISMET
Atelier Kismet produces and publishes artist series of ceramics that are produced in Italy. The series are a collaboration between artists and craftsmen from an Italian family that goes back three generations of professional ceramists, who implement all Italian ceramics traditions into their productions. The artist series are made using ceramics as the natural medium, while the packaging is made with only eco-friendly materials such as eco-plastic and wood.