EUGENIE VRONSKAYAStill Point in a Turning World

EUGENIE VRONSKAYAStill Point in a Turning World

1 - 28 April 2015

Front cover: Trinity (detail), oil on canvas, 46 x 60 cms (cat. 19)Left: Eugenie in her studio

www.scottish-gallery.co.uk/eugenievronskaya

Winter Night, Studio, 2014oil on canvas51 x 76 cms£2,400

1

FOREWORD

Eugenie Vronskaya studied first in Moscow at the Krasnopresnenskya School of Art and then came to London in 1991, taking advantage of the new liberties after the fall of the Wall and everything that came down with it. She was the first Russian student to enrol for the Masters course at the Royal College of Art and completed her studies with an international bursary awarded by VISA. By then she had become a friend of Sir Anthony Caro and participated in his Triangle workshop at Pine Plane, New York State. Other residencies followed at Delfina in London and Spain and she was invited to teach in Winchester and London. In 1997 she moved to Scotland and has lived in the Highlands ever since. These are the bald and impressive facts of her journey and from the biography we can shine light on aspects of her painting. As a girl she studied icons, the enduring images of Russian Orthodox devotion, and when invited to show in a converted church at Kilmorack she invoked the idea of Iconostasis, the screen of icon paintings which divided the sanctuary from the rest of the church, to provide the leitmotif for her work, a series of small scale portraits. The idea we can take forward is that art stands between the worlds of the real and imagined, the temporal and spiritual, in her words:

“. . a transitional tunnel connecting and separating us from another dimension.” Much of her new imagery seems to be drawn from the banal: the bottles, cupboards and washing piles which surround her at home are spotlit, piled high, obliterated and recreated. A view out of a window is spotted with snow and Kandinsky’s early forests are evoked, and a simple still life of glass bottles owes something to Morandi. Like Philip Guston, whose approach she admires, the work suggests a naivety which belies its sophistication: a random mark or dribble undermines the notion of belle peinture in favour of a modernist aesthetic where conventional beauty is not an objective. These remarks are mere observations; from her own testimony we know that her paintings come from her emotional and sensory experiences: all the tribulations and moments of ecstasy, all the life experiences, the necessary handmaidens of ego, must finally be set aside as the work comes to a resolution, the poignant letting go which all artists must experience, the move from personal to general to allow the work of art to intercede, like the icon, into the lives of others: the Still Point of the exhibition’s title.

Still Point in a Turning World(TS Eliot)

GUY PEPLOEFebruary 2015

Crystal Clear Sound, 2014oil on canvas76 x 102 cms

£3,200

2

All Eggs in One Basket, 2014oil on board76 x 60 cms£2,600

3

Crystal Clear, 2014 oil on canvas 101 x 76 cms

£3,200

4

The Circle of Life, 2014 oil on canvas 46 x 60 cms£2,100

5

White Wash, 2014oil on canvas61 x 45 cms

£2,100

6

Silva Lining, 2014 oil on canvas 51 x 76 cms£2,400

7

Not Jars, Not Apples, 2014oil on canvas76 x 122 cms

£3,500

8

Snow Happiness, 2014 oil on canvas51 x 76 cms£2,400

9

9

My Raft of Medusa , 2015oil on canvas60 x 46 cms

£2,100

10

Jam Jar Catacomb, 2015oil on canvas 120 x 150 cms£5,300

11

Coffee, Cat, Mandelshtam, 2015oil on canvas60 x 46 cms£2,100

12

A Letter to Malevich, 2014 oil on canvas51 x 40 cms

£1,900

13

The Death of Marat, 2013oil on canvas46 x 60 cms£2,100

14

Him, 2014oil on canvas 76 x 51 cms

£2,400

15

Teanassie Ghost, 2015oil on canvas51 x 78 cms£2,400

16

Self Portrait, 2015 oil on canvas76 x 51 cms

£2,400

17

Shelve Live, 2014oil on canvas122 x 76 cms£3,500

18

Trinity, 2014 oil on canvas46 x 60 cms

£2,100

19

The Moon in December, 2014 oil on canvas46 x 60 cms£2,100

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EUGENIE VRONSKAYA

1966 Born in Moscow1975-79 Studied Icon painting and other religious disciplines1981-83 Krasnopresnenskaya School of Art, Moscow1983-89 Moscow Fine Art University (BA and MA). Fine Art1991-93 Royal College of Art, London (MA), painting

SOLO EXHIBITIONS1982 Kuznetsky Most, Moscow1990 Boundary Gallery, London1991 Boundary Gallery, London1995 Socollnic Gasworks Gallery, London 1995 TMI, Coppenhagen, Denmark.1996 Detouched, Kingsgate Gallery, London 2005 War And Peace Boundary Gallery, London2006 Iconostas Kilmorack Gallery, Scotland2008 Between The Lines Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London 2011 River Runs Through.., Kilmorack Gallery Scotland2012 Jane Roberts Fine Art , Fauburg Saint Honore, Paris2014 Accidentally Deliberate Kilmorack Gallery, Scotland

GROUP EXHIBITIONS1983-89 Kuznetsky Most, Krymsky Val, Manezh1989 Group show, Mars Gallery, Moscow1990 International Art Fair, Olympia, Kensington, London Glasgow Printmaking Gallery Pine Plane, New York State, USA1991 Group show, Discerning Eye, Mall Gallery, London Art Express, Mall Gallery, London Austin Desmond Gallery, London XIXI, Royal College of Art, London

GROUP EXHIBITIONS CONTINUED1992 Sireny Mission, Pachipanaway, Zimbabwe, Africa1993 Degree show, Royal College of Art1994 Kensington and Chelsea Centre 1995 DAD, Gasworks Gallery, London1996 Stuck With It, Cubit Street Gallery2000-14 Annual Kilmorack Group Show, Scotland2008 Cadogan Contemporary, Hampshire Kilmorack Gallery, Scotland Partridge Fine Art, London2010 The Gallery, London, Shepherd Market2014 Discerning Eye, Mall Gallery London

AWARDS1990 International Artist Workshop Triangle, USA (Invited by Sir Anthony Caro) Glasgow Printmaking Workshop1991 Visa International Bursary1992 International Artist Workship, Pachinpaway, Zimbabwe, Africa ‘TMI’ Award, Denmark2007 Award Best Local Artist by ICA, Scotland2012 Borchard Self Portrait Award

PUBLIC COLLECTIONSPushkin Museum, Mars Gallery and New Tretyakov Gallery, MoscowTate Gallery, LondonV & A, LondonEden Court /The Public Catalogue Foundation /Borchard Collection

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