Lévy Gorvy Dayan was delighted to present Breathing In, the first United States exhibition for the celebrated British painter Alison Watt, whose still lifes married contemporary concepts with the painterly language of classic European portraiture. Opening May 9, 2024, Breathing In featured a host of new and never-before-seen paintings and coincided with Lévy Gorvy Dayan’s presentation of Watt’s significant canvas Peale (2018) at the Independent Art Fair. Watt’s paintings luxuriated in the details from art historical portraiture that served as encapsulations of the sitter’s character, with special emphasis on fabrics and the stories told by their creases. White predominated in her paintings, though like her inanimate subjects, it was given profound dimension through her explorations of its reflective intricacies. The overall effect Watt achieved was one of absent presence. “The still life can be very intimate,” Watt has said. “And because of its close connection to us, how we view it is continually being redefined. It continues to evolve because it reflects us. So, by its very nature, it is linked to the portrait. The still life is a portrait without likeness.”