What Cactuses Whisper
Indeed, what are they whispering? What surprises are hidden in a night-bound train at a border checkpoint? What is beautiful about Mojacar? Don’t rush to strain your imagination and rekindle your memories and forgotten knowledge of what has no bearing on your present life. You will find answers to these and many other questions at the graphics exhibition by the Kyiv-based artist Tamara Polishchuk, which has opened at Obraz Gallery.
This is the debut exhibition of the gallery, which is tucked away in the Department of Aesthetics in the Saltykov-Shchedrin Library in Kyiv. What better venue for a display of contemporary artworks? This is the first solo show by Tamara Polishchuk, who has been featured in many art exhibitions and competitions inside Ukraine and abroad. It is no accident that her graphics were handpicked for the gallery’s debut because, as gallery curator Halyna Solonko put it, the criterion of the gallery is the “superior qualities of exhibiting artists.”
Tamara recently completed her internship at the Ukrainian National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture, but positioned herself as an original artist a long time ago. Unlike most of her peers at the Shevchenko Republican School of the Arts, she clearly defined her future field of endeavors. Illustration is the component of graphic design in which she decided to excel. Polishchuk has preserved her love of authentic literature, a rare thing in our days. She has discovered the desire to share her impressions of literature with potential readers and lovers of fine art. She treasures an original stamp and exquisite characters. It is therefore no surprise that a series of Tamara’s works based on Perversion by Yury Andrukhovych, who is one of her favorite writers, is interspersed with compositions inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Elf of the Rose.”
As a graphic artist, she does not rehash the plot. She takes on the greater challenge of basing her compositions on the literary plot, but complements it with her own no less talented images and ideas that touch on the laws of human relations and one’s true self within the context of an increasingly depersonalized society. Of course, in her strivings toward creative independence Tamara must take up easel painting as well.
Tamara Polishchuk has attended numerous artistic gatherings in Ukraine, Poland, and Croatia. This year she received a grant from the Valparaiso Foundation of Mojacar (Spain). Her exhibition at Obraz Gallery features magnificent paintings inspired by her trip to Almeria, a southern province of the country of the corrida and flamenco. In her Spanish compositions cactus bushes whisper, while the patio, which is native to Spain, resembles a flower display. Huge friendly dogs from Andersen’s “The Tinder-Box” meander down the narrow streets, and the snow-white Mauritanian-style little town of Mojacar is pictured in the sky.
Polishchuk is skilled at using the special properties of aquarelle, gouache, and pastels to liberate her personages from humdrum reality. After all, this is what art is all about. Lately Tamara has been experimenting with the latest fad: computer graphics. Meanwhile, her compositions “Nika” and “Introspection” will soon be featured at the upcoming graphics triennale in Krakow.
