Tanya Akhmetgalieva: The Poisonous Berries
Galerie Forsblom, April 26–June 2, 2019
Opening with the artist in attendance April 25 at 5-7 PM.
The Poisonous Berries marks the painting debut of Tanya Akhmetgalieva (b. 1983), an artist chiefly known for her textile art. Her new oil paintings and graphic works are characterized by the same painterly lyricism, vibrant hues and sketch-like spontaneity familiar from her weavings.
For Akhmetgalieva, painting is a form of journaling and channeling her stream of consciousness. The artist describes her work as a ghostly web of illusions, metamorphoses and suddenly closing apertures. Her works teem with glimpses of dreams, unexpected peals of behind-the-scenes laughter, letters addressed to nobody, incredible coincidences, and sudden bursts of light, all spinning in a blurry merry-go-round. Her bright, exuberant colors deceptively coax us to enter a fictitious paradise, which abruptly reveals itself to be an abode of terror, pain and monstrous rage.
Born in Kemerovo, Russia, Akhmetgalieva is a versatile artist who works across the mediums of painting, textile art, installation, and video. She studied at the Stieglitz State Academy of Art and Design in Saint Petersburg and at the PRO ARTE Institute. She has received several noted awards in her homeland, including the Kuryokhin Contemporary Art Award. Akhmetgalieva’s work is represented in renowned collections such as the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, the Espoo Museum of Modern Art EMMA and the Turku Art Museum.