Siberiana by Irene Nedelay On the 7th of April 2014 at 7 pm the opening reception of the solo-show of a Siberian artist Irene Nedelay will be held at the representative office of Rossotrudnichestvo in London “Gifted artist with an extraordinary life”, “unique Siberian gem”, “great sense of color”, “the outstanding talent”, “highly erudite individual”- these are just some of many accolades given to Irene Nedelay following her shows in recent years in America. This April in London, Irene will present more than 30 of her original works - paintings that she completed in Siberia, Saint Petersburg and the USA. Irene Nedelay was born and grew up in Novosibirsk, Siberia, where she studied fine art and developed her unique “Siberian style”. Irene was an opponent in principle of so called “official art” with its strict ideological frames, so after graduation (Master of Arts in Fine Arts), she chose the career of an independent artist, without ties to any Soviet associations. In the years of Gorbachev’s perestroika, Irene became an active member of an underground movement of young artists and poets. You could stumble upon her paintings in very unexpected places like school halls and underground youth clubs. She became widely known in 2000 when she had her first one-woman show on Novosibirsk, which was held thanks to the support of the Soros Foundation. In 2004 Irene moved away to Saint Petersburg where she embarked on the career of a professional fine artist. In 2007 she had her first solo-show in Europe (Wiesbaden, Germany). In 2009 Irene Nedelay moved to USA. Since then, she paints in her own studio in New York and participates actively in the artistic scene of the Big Apple. In last three years Irene has had more than twenty solo and group exhibitions in America and solo-shows in Russia and Europe. In 2011 she won the JPMorgan Chase ‘Arts in Our Communities’ Grant for developing Russian and Siberian art in New York. In 2012-2013 Irene was rewarded several awards from the National Association of Women Artists of the USA (N.A.W.A.), including the prestigious prize and gold medal for the best oil painting on canvas in 2013 (Medal of Honor & Elizabeth Stanton Blake Memorial Award). This is the first one-woman show of Irene Nedelay in London. “Metaphysical symbolism”, the term which is frequently used to describe Irene’s style of art in America, could also be used as a description of her artistic method, her unique instrument, that allows the artist to complete her creative tasks with an unusual profoundness. One of the main themes that Irene explores in her artworks is the solitude of the individual, longing for the other person and timeless yearning. In one interview, answering a question about themes of her art, Irene said: “I wish to capture the moment when people find themselves alone, since this is precisely when they can think and understand much about themselves and about communication with others. I want to express these thoughts about the thirst for communication and the impossibility of communication. This is the special theme of my work. Sometimes my paintings are a flight from dependency on realistic forms toward more abstract self-expression; sometimes realistic forms win out. But even my still life and abstract work express moments of loneliness in which a person finds himself and the thoughts he may have at such moments. I feel an overwhelming desire to reconstruct in my art an ideal and harmonious world. More harmonious than the world of reality”. As a Russian intellectual, Irene also explores the theme of nostalgia for culture (paintings of the Siberian and Saint Petersburg period). Through the prism of her personal experience, the artist often examines human relationships with their environment: the individual in the big city; the individual in nature; the individual and the social environment in general; human interactions as a whole. Reflections on the fate of her grandmother, who was sent out to Siberia from Belarus in 1940, history of her family and her roots tangle with the culture and history of Siberia, its nature, fate of the natives, dreams and reality (paintings of American period). Some sort of dualism of Irene’s creations lies in subconscious attempts to reconcile the two sources of her inspiration. To reconcile the cultures of diverse but unique Siberia, with her beautiful indigenous nations, and of European civilisation and the global culture. The theme of Siberia, its contrasts, the cold weather and short warm days of summer, the navy blue sky and the white numbing silence of the snow, its free spirit and seclusion from civilisation finds its reflection in Irene Nedelay’s paintings. She sometimes spends months at her canvas, trying to depict the conceived color scheme and composition. Irene has a unique sense of space of the canvas. She manages to complete by the pictorial language a never-ending story, full of details, and at the same time, to evoke in the viewer a desire to look beyond the picture. Irene Nedelay’s paintings, which often show snowy villages of Siberia, are not entirely cold. Irene’s snow express a feeling of her warm nostalgia and longing for maybe difficult but beautiful times and for the little moments of consolation in her life of struggle. Irene doesn’t dwell on the past, she holds on to little moments of happiness that made her life whole. Paintings of Irene Nedelay breathe with a timeless anticipation, as the characters on the canvas wait, with no intention to stop moving forward but only freeze, stuck in the flow of time.
Posted on: Tue, 04 Mar 2014 13:39:01 +0000
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