Chris Levine

Chris Levine is a Canadian multidisciplinary artist whose work spans photography, performance, installation, fashion, music, and design. He is best known for his multimedia pieces which incorporate light installations, photography, music, and fashion. 

Levine is driven by a deep-rooted desire to expand perception and guide the viewer to a meditative engagement with the present moment. His portraits are internationally recognised but he is not a portrait artist in the traditional sense.

In one his most famous works Lightness of Being (2004), Levine captures a spiritual portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, who appears to be emanating light while in a meditative trance. The artist employed a high-resolution digital camera on a 360 degree track shooting 200 images. 

With this series and others, Levine has embraced a hallmark style: intimate, unguarded portrait photography. “Light is intrinsic to the way we perceive reality and by working with it, particularly with laser as a very pure form of light, I do get the sense of tuning into a deeper realm of awareness,” he has said.