In the Search for Knots and Weaves
Behind the windows of the Alberto Levi Gallery hide three interiors. The most secret one: the warehouse. It opened its doors in 1949 by Solomon Levi, Alberto’s father. The world tour unites father and son in the search for knots and weaves between America, Persia, India, China, Tibet and Turkey. As a forerunner of minimalist taste since the early nineties, Alberto Levi creates, invents, and commissions contemporary collections while keeping an eye on his past. In his mind, rooms are hyper-decorated and full of superimpositions, chipped walls beautified with carpets, striped parquet, and frames marked by time.
Levi’s sense for interiors, a personal balancing act between a sixteenth-century arabesque fragment and shaggy Berber rugs, between the grace of a Louis XVI French Aubusson and the chromatic strength of a two-tone graphic piece; in short, false opposites.
He rethinks new ideas in the warehouse, surrounded by rare and ancient pieces.
The second interior is the gallery itself, filled with colour samples in silk, wool, cotton, and any natural fibre that has recently captured Alberto’s attention. An adaptation was necessary to enter the world of contemporary rugs. The customer gets what he wants; everything is possible. Creating is a new concept. With a change of method and vision, Alberto Levi could launch a system of replicating designs in a well-coded made-to-measure service.
The third room is where Alberto leaves rugs behind and goes to the vaulted Roman interiors gracing the basement of the gallery; here, he created a treasure trove, draping the early walls with his collection of ancient rugs and textile fragments. The vaulted walls lead to a secret inner sanctum: a soundproof room where he plays his drums, deep into the night, in the company of his jazz musician friends.
