WORK IN PROGRESS
A. Kasteev State Museum of Arts, Almaty, Republic of Kazakhstan)
02/09/21 - 02/10/21
Vibrant large-scale canvases with fictional subjects have already become Yulia Virko's signature. However, the project WORK IN PROGRESS in Alma-Ata came as an experiment: the artist is not only presenting her works, but as well permits the audience to immerse themselves in the process of their creation.
The exposition embodies a small-scale labyrinth, the outer part of which is the Result, and the inner part is the Process. The first one shows picturesque works by Virko. The series from the project Consciousness Doesn't Have Borders (2020) deals with dreams and the unconscious; the works are easily recognizable by saturated colors, fantastical characters, and the mysterious code numbers in the titles, which indicate the dominant color in the work. The Promised Mirage, a series of new works are marked by a wholistic integration of color and fleshed out stories.
The second part of the exhibition WORK IN PROGRESS, called the Process, is an impromptu studio of the artist in the very center of the exhibition itself. Selected paintings, studies, drafts, sketchbooks, experimental and unfinished works, and even working garments—all become part of the installation.
This is the studio where Yulia Virko would spend several days making monotypes (metal matrix bearing the image imprinted on paper); these works would be based on paintings by Valentin Tkachenko, Stepan Fedyanin, Sabur Mambeyev and Zhanatay Shardenov from the collection of the Kasteev Museum, which happened to be close to the works of Virko and are also present at the exhibition. The choice of this technique by the artist is non-random: a very unique characteristic feature of the monotype is its softness of tonal transitions, blurring contours, sense of a freed brushstroke. This is similar to what one can do in painting—the Virko's primary medium.
Producer — Nataliya Grabar / Grabar Gallery
Curator — Kristina Romanova
Architect — Ksenia Lukyanova
A. Kasteev State Museum of Arts, Almaty, Republic of Kazakhstan)
02/09/21 - 02/10/21
Vibrant large-scale canvases with fictional subjects have already become Yulia Virko's signature. However, the project WORK IN PROGRESS in Alma-Ata came as an experiment: the artist is not only presenting her works, but as well permits the audience to immerse themselves in the process of their creation.
The exposition embodies a small-scale labyrinth, the outer part of which is the Result, and the inner part is the Process. The first one shows picturesque works by Virko. The series from the project Consciousness Doesn't Have Borders (2020) deals with dreams and the unconscious; the works are easily recognizable by saturated colors, fantastical characters, and the mysterious code numbers in the titles, which indicate the dominant color in the work. The Promised Mirage, a series of new works are marked by a wholistic integration of color and fleshed out stories.
The second part of the exhibition WORK IN PROGRESS, called the Process, is an impromptu studio of the artist in the very center of the exhibition itself. Selected paintings, studies, drafts, sketchbooks, experimental and unfinished works, and even working garments—all become part of the installation.
This is the studio where Yulia Virko would spend several days making monotypes (metal matrix bearing the image imprinted on paper); these works would be based on paintings by Valentin Tkachenko, Stepan Fedyanin, Sabur Mambeyev and Zhanatay Shardenov from the collection of the Kasteev Museum, which happened to be close to the works of Virko and are also present at the exhibition. The choice of this technique by the artist is non-random: a very unique characteristic feature of the monotype is its softness of tonal transitions, blurring contours, sense of a freed brushstroke. This is similar to what one can do in painting—the Virko's primary medium.
Producer — Nataliya Grabar / Grabar Gallery
Curator — Kristina Romanova
Architect — Ksenia Lukyanova