MEMORIES OF THE FUTURE AND THE PAST

Voloshyn Gallery presents Anna Valieva’s Exhibition "Memories of the Future and the Past". Some of the works on this Project have already been demonstrated in the United States at the SCOPE Miami Beach 2016 Art Show and SCOPE New York 2017. Now the Kyiv public can get acquainted with the large-scale series.
The name of the Exhibition hints that the artist in this new Project asks herself and viewers the question: "What are memories? What do we know about them and how is our memory arranged? Thus, things we remember so distinctly and expressively in our consciousness from yesterday, a week or a year ago, slip away and vanish. Time erases sharpness, softens contours, leaving only a feeling. Well. Then what is time after all? "
"I plunged into the study of these philosophical issues, reflecting my search, feelings and experiences in a picture plane and placing my semi-abstract characters in some static environment.
Any architecture buildings, interiors, in other words, premises are felt and understood as something static, because they are real by its nature and also unchanged in time. However, the passage of time is reflected in certain events in the movement of motions. We know that space and time are not independent essences, but the forms of existence of the matters that move. They depend on it and are determined by it," says Anna Valieva.
If you assume that all things will disappear, only space and time will be left. Therefore, Valieva removes everything except the individual, already fading, or those figures that are not clearly evident. Thus, the blurred, impersonal figures combine images of the past, recalling the first daguerreotype characters, and the future, foreseeing, for example, instantaneous movement of matter in space and time, recalling the pace in which our lives pass.

Generally, the Series "Memories of the Future and the Past" are very diverse as each painting has its own story. For example the work "Memories" tells the story of generation changes, the traditions and the memory of our ancestors, the layering of different ages, and again, the passage of time.
Another distinct piece of work is "Mother with Child". This iconographic theme is the leitmotif that runs through all creative work of Anna Valieva, regardless of the media to which she refers. The Great Mother image who pressed a baby is the embodiment of nature and her life-giving force of fertility. The Baby is like mankind that nourishes your body from Mother Nature. The picture’s background is filled with softly painted images of women who, according to the artist, are also aimed to create a kaleidoscope effect: we get the whole precious world that is multiplied from one integral part.
Anna’s "external" and "internal" thoughts about life are reflected in the work "Breakfast". The author says: "It are things you fill up yourself that remain. Like breakfast."
Valieva wants to seize the spirit of our time in her works, transience, movement, communication and flow of the past to the future through the present. To achieve this, the artist turns to the oil painting technique and looks for conformable modern colors that are able to change attitudes to oil as the old material. Dominant colors of the works are soft silvery colors with splashes of pink and black, British red colors. The textures also vary: from almost smooth mirror surfaces, in which viewers can see their reflection, to enamel paints reliefs.
It should be noted that Anna Valieva launched the Series "Memories of the Future and the Past" to create monochrome sketches, collages, and got so carried away that the sketches turned into self-sufficient pieces of work which are exhibited at the Exhibition as separate works as if the old family photographs and collages taken into frames represent a selection of "abstraction memories." In addition, they are sometimes deliberately blurry and do not have specifics, so that every viewer can feel personal involvement and find similar associations in their subconscious.
The author says the following about it: "Why do I use journals? This material provides me with opportunities. Everything is already printed and in details. Therefore, you can freely take any item and transform it into a new shape. I am fond of it. If you create all these parts yourself, there is risk that you may feel sorry to treat them this way, that is, take these pieces, superimpose them and layer them like our memories." Valieva sometimes covers pages from old magazines with thick black paint like those things that are already gone from our memory.
Anna Valieva was born in 1984 in the city of Kyiv, Ukraine, in the family of a sculptor. In 2002 she graduated from T. H. Shevchenko State School of Art and entered the Painting Department of Kyiv National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture, where she worked in the monumental painting art studio under the direction of M. A. Storozhenko. At this time, Anna's personality as an artist, who experiments a lot with materials such as canvas, coal, oil, metal, polyester, began to form. Since 2006, Anna has been holder of a fellowship at the National Academy Foundation of Natalia and Ernest Hulak. Since 2008, she has been the member of the Union of Artists of Ukraine. In 2016 Anna Valieva painting "Madonna with Child" was sold at the Phillips Auction. In the same year the artist won the Award of the City Mayor for young people’s outstanding achievements in the development of Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine and the city of heroes. Valieva’s works were presented at the SCOPE Miami Beach 2016 International Art Show and SCOPE New York 2017 and got to the EXHIBITORS HIGHLIGHTS both times.
Voloshyn Gallery was founded in 2006 by spouses Max and Julia Voloshyn called Mystetska Zbirka Art Gallery. It is located in the cultural and historical center of Kyiv on the street Tereschenkivska. Voloshyn Gallery — gallery of modern and conceptual art, is a platform for artistic experimentation, research and social projects.
The mission of gallery: popularization of Ukrainian art in Ukraine and abroad. Max and Julia Voloshyn actively represent Ukrainian art abroad, facilitating its integration into European cultural processes. In February 2014 Max and Julia presented the project "Ukraine. The archetype of freedom" in Vienna in cultural and exhibition center Novomatic Forum. In April 2015 at the initiative of the gallery the first Ukrainian art tour to the island of Cyprus called MAKE ART NOT WAR was organized. In 2015, Max and Julia organized the project of Ukrainian artists in New York, which took place in the Ukrainian Institute of America. In June 2016 the Gallery represented Ukrainian artists at SCOPE Basel, satellite of Art Basel, the most prestigious art fair in the world. The Gallery represented Ukraine during the Art Basel Week Miami at the fair Scope Miami Beach the same year. And in March 2017, it participated in SCOPE New York 2017.
Max and Julia Voloshyn actively support contemporary young Ukrainian artists and collect their works. In 2015, Max and Julia entered the top 30 Ukrainian collectors according to Forbes and became the youngest in this ranking. In the same year, Max and Julia came in a rating of Ukrainian Forbes: 30 successful Ukrainian, who are younger than 30.

Voloshyn Gallery
Kyiv, 13 Tereschenkivska Str., entrance through the arch, the 2nd yard
+38 050 136 47 37, +38 044 234 14 27, www.voloshyngallery.art, info@voloshyngallery.art
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