Painting by Alena Kuznetsova

Canvas, oil, applique, 2019-2022 Our relationships are also our stories that we share with others. I consider this not exactly a “series”, but a cycle of 10 works of different formats, prophetic. I started it at the end of 2019, because I felt pain, as if I had died, and a personal crisis that I could not explain logically. I finished it (and could not finish it, constantly returning to it, refining it) until the beginning of 2022... The most terrible thing is the crisis of meaning. The only option was to try to look into the eyes of these images, from which I had largely become unaccustomed, engaged in color research and abstract art over the previous 10 years. Visualizing my demons is like raising them to the surface so that they disappear. I consider this series a return to real life, which contains complex relationships, the ineffable, a premonition of the irreversible. On canvas, in addition to oil, I used collages, appliques, and beads, which became a tool for me to slow down time. With thoughts about beauty and fear, about my role: an artist, a woman, about the rules that limit your mind in this world.