pop/off/art gallery presents Vika Shumskaya’s solo project "Measuring the void...".
In her new series of paintings, with the poetic title "Measuring the void using the simplicity of two lines touching or...", Shumskaya develops the artistic language of abstraction, in which she is already highly versed. Vika Shumskaya’s artwork is proof that expression is formed not by current affairs, but by the artist’s urge to find answers to the questions posed by Art and the practice of painting.
Continuing to work with the language of abstraction, Vika Shumskaya expands the range of techniques, combining geometric shapes and patterns with patches and gradients of colour. At the same time, through painting she deals with the philosophical concept of the void. For the artist, the void is a pause, the result of a meditative state, a search for balance in these troubled times. The subtle colour palette, based on a fusion of cold hues, is achieved through an intricate technique of applying layers of the same pigment in different concentrations. In Shumskaya's works the paint runs evoke sonorous associations with the natural elements. The artist has said, “I deliberately avoid dark hues. With the help of colour, creating in one go, being allured by its laconism and lightness, I endeavour to capture and sense it, to maintain a positive attitude and help people realise that we all definitely have a chance ..."
Vika Shumskaya was born in Pervomaisk, in 1968; as a child she was taken to the Crimea in 1976 and she considers Feodosia her hometown. From 1985 to 1989 she studied at the Ural College of Fine Arts and Design. From 1996 to 2002 – at the Kharkov State Academy of Design and Arts. In 2001 she was given a grant to study at the Cultural City Network (Graz, Austria). Having gone through all the creative stages, typical for artists who grew up in the post-Soviet cultural space, and having overcome her passion for photography, Vika Shumskaya acquired her own recognisable style. Shumskaya's solo exhibitions have been held at the leading art venues in Russia and the Ukraine; her works were included in the Main Project of the 5th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art "More Light" (Central Exhibition Hall "Manezh", 2013) and in the Parallel Programme of the European Biennale of Contemporary Art MANIFESTA 10. The artist's works are in the major private collections and foundations in Russia and Europe. She lives and works in Banská Bystrica, Slovakia.
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