Jack the Pelican is thrilled to present "Oh!," the New York solo debut of young Israeli artist Elisheva Levy.

In "Oh!," Levy creates a swath of sweet blue graffiti sky on slippery, shiny panels across the gallery's floor. Viewers come upon a moment of mutual surprise, as the artist appears to have just suddenly fled upon discovery, leaving behind the spray-cans of her idling wonder. Upon closer inspection, however, these cans reveal themselves as beautifully constructed paper fabrications.

"Oh!" appears in the sky as though formed from skeins of spray cloud, a faint blip of wondrous surprise. With it, Levy registers a moment of discovery that is her own--of creative exuberance, as though of unexpected orgasm--and of her sudden self-conscious realization of our interrupting presence, which sends her into hiding in embarrassment.

Levy typically works three-dimensionally in paper. Past works include full-scale renditions of a baby grand piano and a 'Just Married' Alfa Romeo getaway car, emblems of a happy traditional bourgeois life. She sleeks down the complications of their forms into a fresh modern language of fragile minimalism. But the beauty of innocent girlish enthusiasm thinly veils an overweening sense of sadness and loss. Something deeper is at work.

Israeli news service Haaretz champions Elisheva Levy's current installation in the Herzliya Biennial of Contemporary Art in Israel as a notable contribution. In addition, she was recently featured in "FIRST LOOK II: the best of the new artists in the U.S." at the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art. She is currently an MFA candidate at the Yale School of Art in sculpture (expected 2008).