Franny Mendes Levitin is an interdisciplinary artist living in Detroit, Michigan who grew up in the Chicago suburbs. Her art combines painting, locally sourced found materials, generative graphics, and installation to celebrate material decomposition. Decomposition excites her as a concept and as an effect because she is passionate about making art sustainably and inspiring excitement about the potential buried in old material.
Her work has contributed to exhibitions and performances in Detroit at Tangent Gallery and Marble; in Chicago at Hyde Park Art Center, Logan Center Exhibitions, Expo Chicago, Smart Bar, and Wedge Gallery; in Toronto at The Music Gallery; and in Vancouver at Access Gallery. She completed her BFA at University of Michigan and her MFA at The University of Chicago. While an MFA she was an Art Science and Culture fellow and after graduating was a post MFA fellow. Her practice takes shape in creative projects that are both solo and co-created. She is a co-founder of Matilda, an A/V art collective contributing audio-visual artworks around the Great Lakes since 2015, a member of Imbue Detroit, and is an artist in residence for the Interdimensional Transmissions.
Some past roles that inspire her artistic viewpoint include digitizing and archiving the artworks of Barbara Rossi at the Roger Brown House Museum in Chicago; providing technical support at The University of Chicago hack arts lab and Stamps print lab at University of Michigan; teaching undergrad courses at multiple universities; and working as a User Experience Designer.