About the Artist
Marcus Levine, the artist and sculptor, introduced a completely new method of sculpture. The artist creates light and shade and texture by hammering nails at different heights and distances, accurately translating his ideas onto white wooden boards of various sizes. Some single works use more than 250,000 nails. The most amazing thing is that all the works are created freehand without drafts.
Abstract in name, but figurative in reality, most of Levine’s “nail sculptures” are extraordinary representations of the human form. Nails are such an unusual material that he chose to express the human body. The artist explained that he was struck by the idea when he was creating an abstract sculpture with nails. “The interaction between the hard, angular nails and the soft curves of the human body produces a rather amazing effect.” The human figures he created are both strong and delicate, reflecting the artist’s innate understanding of the human form.
In keeping with his love of non-representational style, Levine’s latest work starkly contrasts his previous figurative sculptures. His large, monumental works are made of oak, COR-TEN (corrosion-resistant high-strength steel), stainless steel and stone. Marcus now has a following among blind art and sculpture enthusiasts.
Light also plays a role in Levine’s work, as “from morning sunlight to evening sunlight, the shadows on the sculptures may appear as bright as a pencil sketch or as dark as charcoal.”
Marcus has appeared on the BBC One Show, Escape to The Country, Look North several times, ITV’s Calendar News, Hungarian National Television, US National Television, etc. He has also been commissioned to create several monumental public sculptures, including two at Cartwright Hall in Bradford and at the University of Bradford.
Marcus Levine studied with Damien Hirst at Jacob Cramer Art College. Alumni include David Hockney. Since completing his first “nail sculpture” in the fall of 2004, Levine’s technique has improved with each new work, successfully using nails, a difficult medium, to create more dynamic works. He is considered the first artist to create coloured nail sculptures and is also considered the father of figurative nail sculpture.
VDC Interview
Art is limitless, and British sculptor Marcus Levine has redefined the boundaries of art in his unique way. He is no longer limited to traditional canvas and sculptural materials but transforms ordinary nails into unique works of art to create breathtaking works. We trace the artist’s inspiration, skills, and creativity in his studio near Bradford.
Follow our interview to learn more about Marcus Levine, his work, and how he uses this extraordinary material, nails, to create amazing art.
VDC: Vision Digital Culture
Marcus L: Marcus Levine
VDC: What is the main style of your work?
Marcus L: I am not easily categorised, which is also a characteristic of my work. Most artists might find a specific style and continue to create similar works, but I can’t do that.
Early on, I was known for my figurative work, especially the human body.
Representational can be anything that looks like a real object. Some people think representational means the body in the human body, but that’s not always the case. Abstract, I call it non-representational. The abstract is a very “abstract” term, non-representational sounds are easier to understand, which means not deliberately making the work look like something.
For example, in this painting (an abstract work from the studio), you might see flowers or a garden. I am not famous for this kind of work. But in Hungary, I am famous for my geometric abstract works.
VDC: For example, the works of Kandinski?
Marcus L: Yes. Kandinsky painted in many different styles, but it’s strange that he’s best known for his abstract works. Geometric abstraction is my second style at the moment. I’m currently preparing for exhibitions in Budapest and Amsterdam, using stillness to express movement, like the movement of a pulse, where the viewer can feel the heart beating, but the work is actually made up of still points and lines.
VDC: What kind of sculpture style do you prefer to create?
Marcus L: My personal interest is more in the abstract style. Five years ago, my figurative sculptures sold very well and I hardly made abstract works, but now the situation is changing. I was surprised by the situation in Amsterdam this year. The exhibition asked me to exhibit 100% abstract works, which was very gratifying in a way and also made me feel flattered because they were more willing to show my abstract works.
But recently my agent in London told me that she needed a human figure piece and it needed to be completed within 3 weeks. This completely changed my creative thinking and psychological state. I have been procrastinating, but I have to start, which is really maddening.
VDC: How do you create these sculptures? What techniques do you use? Do you use computers to assist?
Marcus L: At certain stages of the process, I use computer graphics software. It is much more efficient than hand drawing. In the past, artists also used moulds. For example, the software can help me measure the diameter of the circle at the end of the drawing so that I can know that this circle is 15 mm in diameter, the next one is 12.5 mm and calculate the distance of the nails. The core creative process is very manual. For example, in the process of creating figurative works, I don’t draw any pencil lines on the board. I just work very slowly, first making the outer contour with nails, and then gradually creating the inner details.
VDC: Your works show many beautiful body shapes. Please tell us about the creative process.
Marcus L: Here is a sculpture for a professional collector. This piece took me a long time to make. I spent a whole day in the studio with the dancer before the creation. I would think about what I want the dancer to do, rather than the dancer telling me what he wants to show. I would draw all the body shapes I want to create, and I was very clear about my ideas.
At the end I ask, do you want to do anything else? Some dancers hesitate because they are not used to posing. But many surprise me. The pose of this Iranian modern dancer in the work is based on my idea.
VDC: This work looks very powerful and full of tension.
Marcus L: Yes, I admire the natural bodies of men and women.
I was interviewed by a woman in London, and she asked me, what kind of models do you use? My answer was, anyone, but I had one requirement, that the model had not had plastic surgery, especially breast augmentation, because if the breasts were not affected by gravity, it would look very unreal. She agreed with me and said it was refreshing to hear a man say that, and we all need to respect the body as it is.
The dancer was 32 when he created this work. Now he is 40 and still dancing. He still looks so young. It seems that dancers can resist aging. I believe that dance can bring a certain harmony within the body.
VDC: Is this way of artistic creation original to you?
Marcus L: In fact, the first artist to create abstract sculptures with nails was a German artist, and I am the first artist to create figurative sculptures with nails. In comparison, from a technical point of view, my geometric abstract works are relatively more difficult to create, and this artist has not made similar works. At the same time, I also use modern colour coatings – vinyl, and you will see different colour refractions when you look at the works from different angles. From a collection point of view, vinyl coatings are very durable and can last for 5-6 years without changing colour unless they start to fade due to ultraviolet rays.
VDC: How long can the nail sculptures you create last?
Marcus L: As a work of art, it can be exposed to the air for 20-30 years, or even longer, before it is necessary to consider putting it in a glass box or taking other measures to isolate it from the air. A long time ago, one of my collectors raised this question, and since then I have begun to observe and think about it.
The durability of an artwork has a lot to do with the material it is made of. For example, if an artist paints a piece of cloth with vinyl paint and then hangs it up for display, the paint will soon crack and fall off, and it will obviously not last long. So, it is worth mentioning that the nails I use, even the rusty ones, are specially treated to prevent rust. They are first burned, then buried in the ground for about 6 months to rust, then dug out, washed, and sprayed with matte varnish to prevent further rust. I can’t guarantee that they will last forever, but as long as they are not in a humid environment, they can last a long time.
Because nails are a special material for creation, I have been studying how to prevent rust. This is a very interesting topic. I remember once a customer told me that my sculpture was rusting. That was the first time I heard about rusting. This problem has troubled me for a long time. I know that the knocking during creation will damage the coating of the nail head, but this coating is very thin, measured in microns, and it will not rust under normal circumstances. Later, I saw an article that suggested that people take off their gold rings when swimming because gold will oxidize under the action of disinfectant water in the swimming pool. I immediately called the customer to ask if the sculpture was placed near the swimming pool. Sure enough, it was placed at the entrance of the swimming pool and was “baptized” by air full of oxidants every day.
Marcus’s large outdoor sculpture, created to celebrate David Hockney’s 80th birthday, is located in Little Germany, Bradford and is the first sculpture in the world to be completed using coloured nails.
The sculpture measures 4.8 x 3.6 meters and took nearly a year to create.
BBC’s talk show “The One Show” conducted an exclusive interview with Marcus.
VDC: How do you view the relationship between art and business?
Marcus L: There are many people who think that to be a good artist, you have to live a hard life, as if only in this way can they express themselves authentically. I don’t believe this. In contrast, I believe that artists can create commercial works and then use the income from commercial works to support their personal practice. You can create whatever you want. This is also the way I do things. Works like Jean Claude van Damme and Al Pacino are commercial works, and I respect the whole creative process very much.
For example, this is Al Pacino, the image from his Scarface poster. Normally, Getty Images owns that image, and you have to pay for the rights to use it. Now, they don’t even allow artists to come to them and ask. They ask the photographer if they would like the artist to recreate that image. Then, they create special rights to use the image for the artist. Most photographers think, using nails? What’s the big deal, why should I worry about it? So they licensed me the rights to recreate that image, and now I can print it and sell it. Al Pacino signed it himself.
Marcus and Al Pacino
VDC: Please introduce the guests who collect your works.
Marcus L: There was a very interesting BBC show about British millionaires selling their luxury homes. The first person to come on was John Griffin, who sold his Hyde Park home for £29 million. He was the owner of Addison Lee Taxi Company and sold it for £225 million. He bought two of my sculptures and I don’t think I’ll ever meet a richer person in my life. The other buyer was a Hungarian billionaire who was very nice. Actually, my clients are all very nice people, which is hard to understand, isn’t it? You would think that money would affect a person, right? This billionaire, I met his wife and daughter, I thought the daughter might be affected because she has everything, the mansion, the yacht and everything else. But she was very nice, her mother was also very nice, they were like a normal family. In the restaurant, you would notice them. She didn’t wear Prada or anything like that, and he was very casual, very chic, with his hair down, like a hippie.
VDC: I noticed you have limited edition prints as well.
Marcus L: I’m not a big fan of limited-edition prints, but there’s a huge market for limited-edition prints. When I was a kid, there was an artist who made 350 limited-edition prints, which was a lot. They sold for £300-400 each, and every small gallery in the area would sell them, and because they sold so well, everyone made a lot of money. Now they’re worthless, they can’t be sold, and you can see it on eBay. My limited-edition prints, I only make 12 at a time. For example, like this famous prima ballerina, who has won many awards. I asked her to sign a limited-edition print, and there are only 12 in the world. I charge a low price of £750. So in France, Germany, and Italy, every country has 350 limited edition prints. Of course, galleries don’t tell you this when you buy, so very quickly, the market was flooded with limited edition prints, which is why I don’t like them, I don’t want my limited edition prints to become a money-making tool. I donated six limited edition prints to Virginia Mckenna’s wildlife conservation charity.
Virginia McKenna signs Marcus’s work.
Virginia McKenna starred in a film called Born Free. She and her husband set up a charity called Born Free and have been doing charity work for many years, for which she was awarded an OBE. She is very kind and just turned 90. When you meet her, you can feel that she has something more than the average person, a real sense of style. She signed my work herself and I gave her six copies to support her charity.
I sent two to a charity I support, the Variety Club, a children’s charity founded by Mr Brooklyn, who raises money to buy buses to take poor and disabled children on holiday in the UK, and the cost of one bus is said to be £27,000.
Do you know Captain Tom Moore? At the age of 99, he walked a thousand laps around his garden to raise money to support the NHS during the COVID-19 pandemic. His efforts touched people around the world and raised millions of pounds for charity. Here are pictures of him as an old man and a young man. He is so famous that many artists have created works for him. I also made one, but it was not my idea, but my client’s. I thought it was a great idea. At the end we were honoured to have Captain Tom sign the work himself.
Work: Portrait of Sir Tom Moore
VDC: Do you have any affordable series in your collection?
Marcus L: Of course, my Pop Art series is aimed at the general public collectors.
One of Marcus’ favourite pop art works – “A Private View”
VDC: Will works like “Personal Views” spark some different discussions?
Marcus L: There are a lot of articles out there discussing the clash of ideas. You have to consider whether this stirs up some ideas. In fact, it’s better to have a lot of criticism than no one talking about it. I don’t think it’s offensive at all. If I really thought it was offensive, I wouldn’t do it. In fact, there are some really offensive things in pornography. For me, it has nothing to do with genitals, it’s just a big nail, as the title of the work says, how to look at it is entirely up to the viewer’s own personal opinion.
Pop Art Series by Marcus
Notice the banana? That’s a nail tribute to Maurizio Cattelan. He is well known for his work where he put a real banana on the wall with a piece of tape. It was more like a performance art, and a few years later they put the banana on the wall of a gallery in another city, and this time someone walked in from the street and ate the banana because he was hungry. This is the artist’s way of generating interest and becoming part of the phenomenon. This piece is a tribute to this very controversial work created by Cattelan.
Work: Nailed to a Wall
VDC: Do you enter a special state when you create?
Marcus in the making
Marcus L: Oh, absolutely! When I’m extremely focused, I can enter a meditative flow state. I remember one time when I was so absorbed in the work that I didn’t realize how time was slipping away. For a moment, I felt my eyelids drooping, and when I looked at the time, it was already 2:30 in the morning. After calming down, I continued to carve the details of the figure’s hairline and thought I had added a nail in the right place. When I stepped back to see the result, I realized that because I suddenly stopped concentrating, the nail was one millimetre higher than the hairline. Seeing this small flaw, I knew it was time to leave the workbench. Later, the work was sent to a well-known gallery, and the client asked about the nail floating in the hairline. I told them about this little episode, and they all laughed. I said it was just a small mistake and I would never make it again. Later, I decided to pull out the nail and fix it, which became a fun story to share with others. I think every artist makes mistakes, but this is part of the creative process. Sometimes, mistakes can also be highlights in the creation, which makes the work more storytelling.
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