Sasha wurde in einer Künstlerfamilie
in Moskau geboren und hatte ihr Kunststudium im Jahre 2005 mit
Auszeichnung abgeschlossen. Sie hat an dem weltbekannten Projekt
„Loving Vincent“ teilgenommen, in dem die Biografie des Künstlers Szene
für Szene gemalt und animiert wurde. Arbeiten von Sasha befinden sich
in vielen privaten Sammlungen der Welt. Zurzeit lebt sie zwischen
Moskau und Barcelona. Das tägliche Leben Barcelonas diente als
Inspiration für die Arbeiten ihrer Ausstellung.
To
begin with a question: what is realism? What it is not is the mimetic
copying of appearances. Faced with ‘reality’ – if we can ignore the
problematics posed by phenomenology – the artist is forced to select,
edit and discard in the process of translating the ‘thing in itself’
into a unique language appropriate to the brush and to the scale of the
support. The choice of medium, of colours and tones, the framing of the
composition, the intricate balance of the negative and positive forms
of figure and ground, the signature style of the brushwork… everything
is subjective. Which is not to say that it lays bare the personality of
the artist, but it does stamp the work with a sense of individual
vision.
For much of the past century, realism fell victim to
political appropriation: Socialist Realism came to equal repression,
while CIA-funded exhibitions of Abstract Expressionism carried the flag
of American liberalism around Western Europe (don’t believe post-truth
is a recent invention!). Today, the playing field is more level. We no
longer have an avant-garde; even the expression ‘cutting edge’ has
begun to sound passé. Realist representation in the traditional medium
of oil paint on canvas coexists alongside performance, installation,
video et al with an equal claim for commenting upon the world in which
we live. And precisely because of its subjectivity (so much distrusted
in post-modern discourse), it retains the potential for personal
disclosure.
In series entitled "Egoism" Sokolova shows us how often
people are concerned with their own well being without noticing what is
happening around them. They think that nothing will affect them,
nothing will disturb them, if they just ignore it and figuratively
"close the door".
To convey the idea she explores contrasts and
opposites visually; tranquillity and the uncontrollable forces of
nature; permanence and transience; drama and peacefulness, and
represents them in colour (familiar and thrilling for the characters)
and monochrome (everything that they subconsciously retreat from).
What
we find in Sokolova’s series “Conversations” is often a solipsistic
vision, an urban panorama in which the rituals of the everyday are
performed regardless of the public context: street games, bars and
social interaction in which the players appear unaware of being
observed and oblivious to the proximity of those around them.
Sasha
Sokolova captures this corner of everyday reality with a highly trained
eye and dexterity of execution that lays bare what might otherwise pass
us by, and does so with an almost whimsical empathy and understanding.
As with all her works, she does our looking for us. And, just perhaps,
encourages us to take closer note the next time we encounter a dog
walker on the street.
text: Keith Patrick
Vernissage: 11.11.2017 19.00 Uhr.