Persons. Glazed Madonnas by Kaffelman to be presented in Lera Litvinova Gallery February 28
On February 28, Lera Litvinova Gallery presents a personal exhibition of Artem Andriychuk (Kaffelman) named «Persons. Glazed Madonnas». Artem Andreychuk (Kaffelman) is a young but already known artist both in Ukraine and abroad.
Semantically expanding the term "Madonnas", the author emphasizes the ambiguity of perception, presenting on the one hand - desacralized image of Mother of God and the other hand - the desired object of love. The image of a faceless girl is inspired by one of the many nameless models from fashion magazine and is "replicated" by using pop art techniques. A glossy aesthetics imitated by glazed surface gives another hint on shells and masks and reflects the exploitation of visually sophisticated and unattainable images by society.
Long-term project named «Persons. Glazed Madonnas» represents a series of paintings depicting the heads of women with similar appearance and similar type of face expression. A series of paintings is a kind of author's irony on the conscious uniformity of people - pictured faces do not reflect the nature of emotions and personality. Every painting has equal depiction of eyes that are hidden under the mosaic of broken glass which also demonstrates intentional deprivation of uniqueness. This method eventually unifies the images and reflects the absence of any reference to the portrait.
Slightly modified composition is similar to Edvard Munch "Scream". However, in works of Artem Andriychuk affective image of a man in agony loses its initial emotional message, bordering with mannerism, coquetry and eroticism. Faces with fully or partly opened mouths generate emotionally empty actions and their mimic expressions are the form, not the manifestation. It shows an internal conflict and reflects the duality of human personality - the desire to hide the true face and feelings and at the same time striving to go beyond social restrictions and take off the mask.
"Intentional similarity of images reflects modern society that is not intended to develop uniqueness, society that massively produces a new object of worship - glazed Madonnas. But this mask, the veil of inaccessibility is deceptive; it is as fragile as glass. That’s why each composition demonstrates the impossibility of path, choice, and differences and implies full identity of the figures,"- says Artem Andriychuk (Kaffelman).
The curator of the project is the Leonora Yanko, art critic, art manager and director of Lera Litvinova Gallery: «Modern society often imposes stereotyped images, to which everyone supposedly should strive through losing their individuality. In search of the ideal and trying to be like somebody else people forget about their own uniqueness and their true intentions. Works of Artem Andriychuk reflect the kind of paradox - individuals strive to think outside of the box, but they are limited by fear to show their true self."
