Swiss gallery Voskhod will present the solo exhibition “The Fleeting Light on Your Folds” by artist Katya Tsareva. Curated by Anzhela Popova, the exhibition is purposely divided into two parts and organized in different cities and countries – London (UK) and Basel (Switzerland). Visitors are invited to get acquainted with the two different but interconnected expositions.
Poster it the exhibition
The first part of the exhibition will be opened on October 5-6, 2024 at the Brompton Chapel in London. It is focused on viewing the body as an initial element or cell. What does it actually mean to life inside of it? The exposition, formed as a site-specific installation consisting of large-scale watercolors and textile soft objects by Katya Tsareva – is a kind of metaphor for a second skin. The installation is a source of attraction, uniting both pleasure and pain, and simultaneously hatred and desire.
Katya Tsareva explores the theme of corporeality by reconsidering the traditional technique of academic painting and considering what can go wrong in the process, thus working through countless transformations of the depicted nature. The artistic method is to show the body as a device for processing the external world: an object of transformation, accumulating, transforming, discarding, taking apart.
The second part of the exhibition will take place at the Voskhod Galleryin Baselfrom October 17 to November 16, 2024. The exhibition, presented in the window, is based on large watercolor works and white sheets of watercolor paper, deliberately torn in a spontaneous manner. Bursting through the layers of paper, the watercolors reveal our corporeality as a set of surfaces of varying levels of attractiveness. They reflect the experience of living in this or that body as a vessel of catastrophic vulnerability and exposure. Katya uses photographs as the basis for her watercolor works; she intentionally modifies figures and fragments of bodies using collage and computer graphics. The large-scale watercolors are obviously the result of delicate, long and painstaking work. Watercolors can evoke a wide range of emotions in the viewer simultaneously, among them pleasure, attraction, even disgust. Nevertheless, these sets of opposing forces are in a certain balance.
Katya Tsareva
“The Fleeting Light on Your Folds” reveals the extent of our physical sensuality and vulnerability. The exhibition explores the body itself: why it is so difficult to be in it, why we want to escape or subjugate it, why it remains a naked source of power. The free body gains its full power not in spite of, but because of its tenderness.
The artist.
Katya Tsareva is a multidisciplinary artist currently living and working in London. She was born in Krasnodar, Russia. Graduated with an MA in Architecture and Design from Kuban State University, Russia (2006) and Chelsea Open Studio short course, Chelsea College of Arts, London, UK (April-May 2024). In 2017 she was recognized as one of the 100 best young Russian artists by In Art magazine, and in 2018 she had her solo exhibition at the Udmurt Republican Art Museum. In 2022, she participated in a group exhibition supported by Voices of Culture at the Basel Art Center, Switzerland. Group exhibitions 2024 include Open Call curated by Phony, Lock In Gallery, Brighton, HEAT RuptureXIBIT(+Studio) Gallery, London, ‘Dawn on Your Skin’, a duo exhibition with Damaris Athene, Feelium Gallery & Studios, London. Participant of Limburg Marres Biennale, Maastricht, Netherlands and 1st Ground Biennale, Textiles in Contemporary Art, Ground Solyanka, Moscow in 2024.
The curator.
Anzhela Popova is an independent curator based in London and co-founder of a multidisciplinary organization dedicated to building international cultural connections. She works both individually and in collaboration with artists and experts, directing high-level exhibitions from idea to implementation and creating new formats for cultural projects. She has co-curated more than 20 exhibitions, including international shows. Anzhela has been working with emerging and established artists, connecting people in the cultural industry for over 8 years.
The gallery.
Voskhod Gallery was founded in 2021 as an artistic platform for the brightest young talents from Eastern Europe, the Balkans, Russia, the Caucasus and Central Asia. Founded as an online platform with a physical exhibition space in Basel, Switzerland, the gallery aims to be a stage for experimentation in the presentation, display and distribution of art. The gallery’s main objective is to open the names of young and talented artists to a wider audience in the Western market.
Part 1. The Chapel, Brompton Cemetery
Old Brompton Road, SW5 9JE, London, United Kingdom
