The paintings in these series demonstrate the artist's signature style, explicitly referencing Dutch 17th-century still lifes. The deep black background plays a significant role: this is what creates the desired optical effect that seems to envelop objects in emptiness, while at the same time pushing them to the foreground in all their selfhood and presence. It seems that nothing is actually happening in these works, but they document how things are present in the here and now, how they exist as separate pieces of a cohesive universe.
The series resembles the gallery of a fetishist who maniacally pursues the object of his obsession: half-naked bodies, flesh-colored nylon stockings, lace bras, petticoats and combinations of undergarments are captured in their undisguised delicacy and shamelessness.
The sensual may perplex the viewer at first. It is disconcerting in its candor and straightforwardness, making it awkward to gaze at and examine these intimate transparent materials and folds. But like everything that is taboo and normally hidden from prying eyes, it holds your gaze and draws your eye over the silky and lacy surfaces again and again. The beauty of the depiction, the defamiliarisation of the objects, and their manifested sensuality both fascinate and repulse, or even frighten us — yet through them we encounter ourselves. Because what is captured by the artist and the way these things are captured contain the eye of the beholder, and what we see has long been looking at us.
Based on the text by Lizaveta Matveeva.
