Ukrainian-French exhibition "Expressiveness beyond Borders". 16.05 - 04.06.2023
The exhibition "Expressiveness beyond borders" presents the paintings and drawings of Ukrainian artist Natasha Brichuk (Notuko) and French-Finnish artist Roxanne Hemery.
Throughout their artistic careers, artists from a variety of schools and methodologies have given priority to gestural and emotional freedom. A natural point of convergence in their works is their love for vivid color, which strengthens the symbolism of elements, serves as a means of expressing movement and emotional states, and—most importantly—draws attention to profound human experiences and ideas.
In turn, Natalya Brichuk is more focused on self-discovery. On her canvases, there is often the image of a conventional female figure, which personifies the artist and her desire to know her roots through folklore motifs.
While the focus of Roxanne's artistic research is interpersonal relationships, her own interpretation of human relationships in contemporary society.
On May 16 at 18.00, the show will officially open. Those attending will have the chance to speak with the artist Roxanne Hemery and the project curator Kateryna Pidhaina.
Address: Barcelona, Test Gallery, carrer Milans 3.
Contact: testgallerybcn@gmail.com, Kateryna Pidhayna
To see the works
About the artists:
Born in 1993, Roxanne Hemery, a Franco-Finnish painter. Roxanne obtained her degree in Graphic Arts in Paris and then moved to London to continue her studies in Painting at the Art
Academy London Bridge, while simultaneously pursuing a degree in Communication Media at Paddington Arts Westminster. Following this, Roxanne resumed her post-graduate studies in France at the Ecole des Arts de la Sorbonne, where she obtained a Master's degree in Contemporary Creation.
Roxanne uses gesture throughout her artistic practice to express sensation and emotion. The artist explores the coexistence of painting and impulsiveness, and the duality between form and formlessness by confronting the disparity between abstraction and figuration, and treading the discordance between intentionality and unintentionality. Throughout her artistic career, Roxanne has prioritized gestural and emotional freedom. This can be summarized through the question which she seeks to explore through painting - is letting go essential to the act of creation?
Roxanne is the founder and director of an international contemporary art gallery, Yellow Cube Gallery. She is based out of Paris, France.
For Roxanne, the canvas becomes an arena where colors and shapes intertwine and intermingle with her medium to create unity. Her gesture is liberating, dynamic, and seeks fluidity with the canvas. From expression to color, she offers a rendition of primitive painting where figuration and abstraction intermingle to create an energetic flow.
She approaches the individual as an artistic subject through explorations of the human body. The body is therefore represented as fragmented. Dislocated figures capture the collective human struggle, resulting in an animated observation of today's society struck by violence and social-cultural injustices.
Natasha Brichuk (Notuko) is a Ukrainian contemporary artist. Lives and works in Rivne, Ukraine. She graduated from the Rivne State Humanitarian University with a specialty in decorative and applied arts, namely ceramics.
Notuko tries to embody folk motifs in an abstract form. The artist's works explore various relationships between modern and traditional cultures. The artist mostly looks for inspiration in traditional objects that are still part of Ukrainian everyday life.
Improvisation and lightness are striking differences in her works. In the context of her creative searches, the artist turns to folklore. Because of the feeling of being planted in a foreign culture throughout life, Notuko chooses this particular aspect to explore. Due to the historical, artificial rejection of speaking the native language and knowledge of the traditions of her country, such a phenomenon as the formation of a cultural inferiority complex is being investigated by Notuko. On the canvases of the artist, you can often trace the image of a conventional female figure, which personifies the artist and her desire to know her roots through the use of folklore motifs.
The author combines the art of the naive through the prism of researching bibliographic and scientific sources. After all, in her works you can trace reminiscences of Byzantine art, Christian iconography and folk art of Ukraine. Notuko is inspired by the color and the area in which she grew up: architecture and, especially, the decoration of houses. Household items, such as painted Ukrainian tableware or embroidery.