Gallery Portal11 presents personal exhibition of Oksana Boiko “Flashback”. 18.02.23 – 19.03.23.
“Flashback”
As a philosophical concept, nostalgia describes memories of home, homeland, and childhood. These memories often evoke good emotions and a desire to return to this state or to the circumstances that were in the past. That’s why nostalgia is ften misunderstood as something dusty, sad, and lacking in vibrancy. For me, the memory of the past, of my city, is a joy because that’s how I remember it. And it’s also a joy because I know that my city was the way I pictured it, and it will be like that in the future: sunny, bright, vibrant, full of beauty and aesthetics in places where it seems impossible for it to exist. How often do we think that a bunch of kiosks under our house with faded signs from the last century is beautiful? Is the path we walk from home to the subway aesthetically pleasing? Are the gray houses of huge neighborhoods beautiful? Yes, they are!
It was beautiful for me when I was present in my city, looking at its streets with wide eyes, turning my head at all three hundred and sixty degrees. It is still beautiful now, but now it is a memory. As if your city remains an Instagram post for you, like just a square photo.
The exhibition begins with large, panoramic paintings created before the russian invasion. In these works, the viewer’s presence in the depicted space is felt as if it were a view of the space with both eyes from a wide angle. Gradually, as we move on to other works, the paintings become smaller and less elongated, ending up in a square format. At the end, the exhibition space is completed by a composition of nine square works made from memory and arranged 3 by 3, resembling a grid in an Instagram profile. These are like photographs of my memories, Kharkiv places that I see even when I close my eyes. Like human memories, these works are vague and inaccurate compared to real places, but this is my memory, the way I remember everything. In this way, I am capturing abstract memories in the matter, memories of my city, where I am not now.
I am not in Kharkiv.
And where aren’t you now?
Oksana Boiko was born in Chernihiv, 1997. She lived and worked in Kharkiv before the full-scale russian invasion. She finished Kharkiv Art School as a Theater Decorator (2013-2017) and graduated Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts, a Book Graphics speciality (Bachelor 2017-2021, Master 2021-2022). She is engaged in different graphic techniques, book graphics, and acrylic painting. She regularly participates in plein airs and art residencies. Her works are kept in private collections in Ukraine, the USA, and the UK.
She highlights the themes of urban and cityscape in her artworks. The search of rhythmic interrelationships of color spots, color organization, and space flexibility is the basis of Oksana’s art.
The cityscape theme in Oksana Boiko’s works exists at the intersection of painting and graphics. Therefore, it is difficult to determine whether these paintings are – graphic paintings or pictorial graphics. Because when looking for rich color combinations in a sketch, where red is the color of the sky, which goes well with the green lights of the city, the artist thinks primarily about color combinations, laconicism, and composition.
Kyiv, st. Triokhsviatytelska, 11.
Wednesday – Sunday 11 AM – 7 PM
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