fall 2025
interactive small classes once a week
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You can audit this course as an observer for $495. Click Here for more info.
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*The mentorship runs for 14 sessions. SmArt School teachers sometimes have to travel for professional reasons. If they must miss a class they will notify all students with as much lead time as possible and add a session to the end of the calendar. Some weeks off are also scheduled into the calendar, see the 'Courses' main page for details. ALL CLASSES MEET LIVE and are not recorded due to proprietary content. Teaching will not happen via email, only during class time.
conceptual Figurative Art for Gallery Goals
Rebecca returns to SmArt School with her class focused on helping students develop their portfolio towards a gallery goal.
She will be helping students understand the different planets (and artists) within the Gallery Art Universe--from conceptual art (including abstraction and modernism) to contemporary figurative realism. The purpose will be to help artists understand the landscape and language of ideas to inform their own choices for a developing body of work.
Rebecca will require some reading prior to class and will expect students to complete specific weekly assignments in the first 6 weeks of class.
The second part of the semester will allow students to develop work of their own choosing that connects to where they want to go. Most classes will have individual feedback on specific assignments. If a student completes each assignment and does work every week, they will receive critique and feedback. Some classes will include small lectures on methods/mechanics and discussions of relevant artists. All of these things will be tailored to the needs and interests of the class.
If a student is not completing work , there will be little feedback that Rebecca will be able to give. Students who enroll must be willing to complete assignments/projects weekly in order to receive the most from the class. Some weeks will include discussion about the business of the gallery world, but this is a PRIMARILY a portfolio development class.
Rebecca's goals as a teacher are to meet a student where they are and help them address the places they need to work to develop the kind of work they want to do.
Because the vast majority of gallery work is done in IRL materials-work in class cannot be digital - Ai is not allowed for concept building.
Towards the end of the semester a special industry guest will visit and view student work.
After taking this class students will also receive the option of a free profile on the Alumni Portfolios page.
She will be helping students understand the different planets (and artists) within the Gallery Art Universe--from conceptual art (including abstraction and modernism) to contemporary figurative realism. The purpose will be to help artists understand the landscape and language of ideas to inform their own choices for a developing body of work.
Rebecca will require some reading prior to class and will expect students to complete specific weekly assignments in the first 6 weeks of class.
The second part of the semester will allow students to develop work of their own choosing that connects to where they want to go. Most classes will have individual feedback on specific assignments. If a student completes each assignment and does work every week, they will receive critique and feedback. Some classes will include small lectures on methods/mechanics and discussions of relevant artists. All of these things will be tailored to the needs and interests of the class.
If a student is not completing work , there will be little feedback that Rebecca will be able to give. Students who enroll must be willing to complete assignments/projects weekly in order to receive the most from the class. Some weeks will include discussion about the business of the gallery world, but this is a PRIMARILY a portfolio development class.
Rebecca's goals as a teacher are to meet a student where they are and help them address the places they need to work to develop the kind of work they want to do.
Because the vast majority of gallery work is done in IRL materials-work in class cannot be digital - Ai is not allowed for concept building.
Towards the end of the semester a special industry guest will visit and view student work.
After taking this class students will also receive the option of a free profile on the Alumni Portfolios page.
About REbecca Leveille Guay
Rebecca Leveille Guay is a contemporary artist working in a figurative mode. Freely mining both art historical sources, magical surrealism/ fantasy iconography and contemporary cultural imagery. Her practice involves a translation of inner mythologies through her distinctive ability to compose lyrically gestured figures largely from imagination. Leveille’s facility with the figure and drawing was the center of her successes as an illustrator in the 1990’s until 2011 (working under the name Rebecca Guay). She was a celebrated figure in comics and fantasy publishing, working closely with the legendary Denis Kitchen as her agent for a number of years, until 2011 at which time she left commercial work to pursue personal and gallery painting.
Breaking out of the prescriptive narrative mode, her relationship to language persists yet the narrative potentials in her current work are balanced by her determination to create that which is poetic rather than literal. These personally driven explorations delve into sensuality, the female gaze, media imagery, and Art World social phenomena. She often leans into and appropriates her past identity as a creator OF pop culture as a tool to examine the myth and influence of culture within her current work.
A constant subtext of Leveille’s art is her relationship to materials. Carved line and washes drift within paint and pattern. The material is married to the creation of the piece with voluptuous tactility with meanings of its own.
Her work has been exhibited around the country including solo exhibitions at: Untitled Space, NY; The Spring Break Art Show (2018 & 2019), NY ; Corey Helford Gallery, LA; Site:Brooklyn Gallery, NY; and Michelson Gallery, MA. Her work has also been exhibited in group exhibitions including at: The Allentown Museum of Art, PA; The Delaware Art Museum, DE; Jonathan Levine Gallery, NY; Abend Gallery, CO; and The Center for Contemporary Art, Sante Fe, NM.
She was a finalist for the 2019 Bennet Prize and was part of a national museum tour through 2020-2021 with the Muskegon Museum and the Bennett Prize
Hers work is in notable private collections including The Bennett Collection as well as the private collection of Alex and Stephen Cohen
Her recent solo show The Queen of Mars ( NYC) June 2023 curated by Nicholas Cueva for Gallery 42 received multiple social media recognitions from art word icon and Pulitzer Prize winner for art critisism, Jerry Saltz.
Breaking out of the prescriptive narrative mode, her relationship to language persists yet the narrative potentials in her current work are balanced by her determination to create that which is poetic rather than literal. These personally driven explorations delve into sensuality, the female gaze, media imagery, and Art World social phenomena. She often leans into and appropriates her past identity as a creator OF pop culture as a tool to examine the myth and influence of culture within her current work.
A constant subtext of Leveille’s art is her relationship to materials. Carved line and washes drift within paint and pattern. The material is married to the creation of the piece with voluptuous tactility with meanings of its own.
Her work has been exhibited around the country including solo exhibitions at: Untitled Space, NY; The Spring Break Art Show (2018 & 2019), NY ; Corey Helford Gallery, LA; Site:Brooklyn Gallery, NY; and Michelson Gallery, MA. Her work has also been exhibited in group exhibitions including at: The Allentown Museum of Art, PA; The Delaware Art Museum, DE; Jonathan Levine Gallery, NY; Abend Gallery, CO; and The Center for Contemporary Art, Sante Fe, NM.
She was a finalist for the 2019 Bennet Prize and was part of a national museum tour through 2020-2021 with the Muskegon Museum and the Bennett Prize
Hers work is in notable private collections including The Bennett Collection as well as the private collection of Alex and Stephen Cohen
Her recent solo show The Queen of Mars ( NYC) June 2023 curated by Nicholas Cueva for Gallery 42 received multiple social media recognitions from art word icon and Pulitzer Prize winner for art critisism, Jerry Saltz.
Rebecca on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rebecca_leveille_guay/