I MET THE RED-HAIRED, BRIGHT OLGA KIZUB, A WELL-KNOWN KYIV ARTIST, IN 2019, WHEN HER PAINTING WON THE "COLORS OF THE WORLD-TURKEY" CONTEST. THE MAGICAL MARBLE GAVE THE ARTIST INSPIRATION, AND I DILIGENTLY RECORDED AND PHOTOGRAPHED IT ALL :)
OLIA, THE REASON FOR OUR MEETING AGAIN IS PAINTING. I KNOW THAT YOU HAVE BEEN WORKING ON THE "WINGS" PROJECT FOR TWO YEARS, IS IT TRUE?
Yes, for almost two years, just during the global lockdown.
HOW DID YOU EVEN COME UP WITH THIS IDEA, SINCE THERE WAS NOTHING LIKE IT IN THE HISTORY OF WORLD ART?
Gradually! (laughs) At first, I had a conversation with the PR director of Sikorsky Airport. After my enchanting New Year's Eve exhibition at the Museum of Kyiv History, she suggested that I do a solo exhibition at the airport. Only with a note: the airport is not a gallery, so the subject matter should be related to the place.
HOW COULD THIS CONVERSATION EVEN TAKE PLACE? DO YOU HAVE ANY RELATIONSHIP WITH AVIATION?
Yes, I do, both family and friends. My grandfather's airplane is parked there, at Sikorsky, in the Aviation Museum, Medova Street, 1 https://aviamuseum.com. ua/ His plane was the first to take off in Boryspil. So I have had a love for the sky and flying since childhood.
AND WHAT DID YOU DECIDE - TO ACCEPT THE OFFER AND LOOK FOR INSPIRATION?
Olya, in two days I had an idea that took two years to realize in sixteen one-and-a-half-meter canvases. I got up and went to bed thinking about what I had already done and how to transfer my vision to the canvas.
I THINK IT'S TIME TO TELL YOU WHAT THESE "WINGS" ARE.
The idea was born to paint two paintings on equal-sized canvases for each country I visited while boarding a plane at Sikorsky Kyiv Airport. One should show the country's characteristic terrain that impressed me. And the second one should be my integral perception of the country's spirit, culture, history, and laws - an artistic depiction of its essence. To put realism and subjective abstraction back to back.
WHAT CAUGHT YOUR EYE, WHICH PLACES?
Trakai castle, evening Tuscany, morning fields of Provence, sunset in Coral Bay, snow-white streets of Marmaris :)... YES, MARMARIS FACES US THEN WITH ITS BEAUTY! I'VE NEVER HEARD OF THIS STYLE OF PICTURE... It is the transmission of impressions by visual means, bypassing the figurative presentation. That is, it is directed directly to emotions, to feelings - like music. People often call me an artist-musician. I really love music because it gives people freedom of perception, just like my paintings made in this manner.
WHAT WAS THE HARDEST THING FOR YOU? PROBABLY NOT LOSING YOUR ABILITY TO WORK?
Not letting go of the brush is more like happiness than fatigue! But immersing myself in the essence of the country, which I portrayed as a certain amount of knowledge about its history, culture, religion, legislation and character traits, without slipping into romantic templates and ignoring the facts, required much more effort and attention from me than the usual "objective" painting. You can imagine the tension I was working under, if the project "Delight in Color" - 12 meter squares painted in three months for the famous Kyiv gallery GAMMA - became a consolation. It was three months of free flight, fruitful, and ended with an exhibition in May 2021. I took a break and returned to my "Wings" again:) Some images were born right under the brush, such as Israel. And Italy, which I adore, behaved like a capricious prima donna: until I told her that if she continued to behave like that, she would go to the exhibition unfinished, twisting my nerves and brains. While painting Cyprus, I was listening to Paganini's 24th Caprice performed by Max Vengerov. I must have listened to it a hundred times. And I'm ready to listen to it again!
AND WE ARE READY TO WATCH YOUR SUNNY, BRIGHT, LIFE-GIVING PAINTINGS!
From December 7, 2021, until the end of the Christmas holidays, the exhibition is open at Sikorsky Airport around the clock. Other works by the artist can be seen at GAMMA, Kyiv, 9 Hrushevskoho St. https://gamma-gallery.com/ and in the VIP terminal hall of Sikorsky. Her paintings are in private collections in Chicago, Detroit, San Francisco, Stockholm, Hamburg, Berlin, Warsaw, Moscow, Riga, Vilnius, Kyiv, Odesa, Brovary, and Ivano-Frankivsk.
A TRADITIONAL QUESTION BEFORE THE NEW YEAR: WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO WISH OUR READERS?
I wish you many new interesting journeys and discoveries - both in the world of oceans, forests and mountains, and in the world of people and feelings! After all, as long as we are curious, we are alive.
The conversation was conducted by Olga Tripolska
http://olha.kizub.com.ua/project
