After reading an article about her in the TOAST magazine, I had hoped to visit the home studio of Yukhnovich as her work is one that really interested me. However, due to travel and lack of availability at the time, I was unable to do so; so you can imagine my sheer excitement when I found her work was to be displayed at Leeds Arts University, and of course we had to go explore it!
“The thing that makes me want to paint is paint,” says Flora Yukhnovich, who, when we meet ahead of her first solo show at Parafin gallery, is dressed in clothes appropriately splattered from top to toe. For her, the way in which paint is applied to a canvas adds a whole new dimension to a work. “It’s a language with its own signs and symbols.”
-TOAST Magazine 17th January 2019
‘In the Studio with the Artist Flora Yukhnovich’
My first impression went a little something like this; my eyes were widely opened and I could hardly say much- these pieces of work were SO MUCH bigger than I had expected! I found myself stood infront of the piece above for a while before taking a few steps backward as if watching a new image being created before me. From close up, it seems as though the piece is sheerly a masacre of paint strokes dancing on the canvas, with no clear indication of any sort of subject matter.
However, upon stepping back, you begin to see the indications of human form emerging from the piece. The further back you go, the more intricate details begin to take shape until you’re left with your back against the wall at the opposite side of the gallery, marvelling at the masterpiece set before you.
But that’s only the start, that’s just one of may pieces of her work that look to give you the same experience, each unique and intriguing in their own respect.
This is definitely a body of work you can’t just look at online, I found so much of the experience comes from going and looking at it in full glory in person! I feel it has helped me consider things like proportion and size in terms of my own work, and how displaying work physically can add to the experience or journey that the viewer has of your work- I’m very excited to see how I can use this experience as inspiration to start exhibiting my own work.
V E E L I S E K 