Eugenie Vronskaya The Night Walker John Martin Gallery
Sleeper oil on canvas, 30 x 40 inches, 76 x 102 cms
Eugenie Vronskaya The Night Walker 6 21 November 2015 John Martin Gallery 38 Albemarle Street London, W1S 4JG info@jmlondon.com www.jmlondon.com Tel +44 (0)20 7499 1314 Mon-Fri 10-6, Sat 10-1:30
Horse in Red oil on canvas, 20 x 30 inches, 51 x 76 cms
So we ll go no more a roving so late into the night, Though the heart be still as loving, and the moon be still as bright. The late night rovers in Byron s poem are lovers, but Eugenia Vronskaya does her night walking alone. Over the past few years she has got into the habit of taking nocturnal rambles around her home in the Scottish Highlands, surrendering to the embrace of the dark. Like other women artists and mothers distracted during the day by domestic tasks, she has become a creature of the night. Artists need time alone not just to paint but to dream, and nighttime is the traditional time for dreaming. Sometimes she walks with her dog, sometimes a neighbour s horse, too old to ride but in need of exercise and companionship. On the eve of major changes in her life, with her sons growing up and a planned move back to London, the nocturnal ritual has become a sort of leave-taking. From her first solo show in 1989, Vronskaya has stood out for her effortless technique acquired during six years rigorous training at Moscow Fine Art University. She has made a name for her portraits and still lifes, but complains that painting objective reality is too easy: I don t question, I just paint. It s not enough. She wants more, and she has found it in the alternative reality of the borderlands between waking and sleep. There is a Symbolist streak in contemporary painting, discernible in the dreamscapes of Peter Doig and Chris Ofili. But while Doig and Ofili set the scene for the viewer s reverie, Vronskaya directs the performance. Her monumental Dreaming Head informs us that it is she who is doing the dreaming: when we enter her paintings, we enter her dreams. We follow the tall figure in the long flapping blue coat and top hat as she wanders barefoot like a sleepwalker through snowy woods, paddles through water phosphorescent with the reflected starlight or battles through rain that lashes the picture plane like a windscreen. Sometimes the paint is thick and lustrous; more often it is dispersed in drips, dribbles and efflorescent blooms of solvent. Occasionally it is so thinned that it just stains the canvas in passing, like a photograph lifted from the developing fluid before the image is definitively fixed. As much as journeys of the imagination, these new works are adventures in paint and print. In her magician s costume, Vronskaya could be a conjurer about to produce a rabbit from her hat. But painting is more difficult than magic: rabbits aren t provided, they have to be caught. The Night Walker series lets us share the excitement of the chase and the romance of the artist s solitary journey into terra incognita while the rest of the world is asleep. Laura Gascoigne
Over the Hills oil on canvas, 20 x 30 inches, 51 x 76 cms
Little Red Dress oil on canvas, 59¾ x 71¾ inches, 152 x 182 cms
The Chase oil on linen, 15¾ x 11 inches, 40 x 30 cms
Escape, Snow oil on canvas, 30 x 40 inches
Caithness Moon oil on canvas, 20 x 30 inches, 51 x 76 cms
Boy and Horse oil on linen, 15¾ x 11¾ inches, 40 x 30 cms
Blue, Red, Green oil on canvas, 15¾ x 19¾ inches, 40 x 50 cms
Blue Coat oil on canvas, 49¼ x 61 inches, 125 x 155 cms
Watching the Sea drypoint etching, 13 x 9½ inches, 33 x 24.5 cms
Escape 1 drypoint etching, 13 x 9½ inches, 33 x 24.5 cms
Dusk by the Sea oil on linen, 15¾ x 11 inches, 40 x 30 cms
Watching the Sea oil on board, 16½ x 8¼ inches, 41 x 21 cms
Red Hill oil on linen, 10 x 11¾ inches, 25 x 30 cms
Woodland Creature oil on linen, 13½ x 15¾ inches, 30 x 40 cms
Night Light at Teanassie oil on linen, 13½ x 15¾ inches, 30 x 40 cms
Fire Horse oil on canvas, 61½ x 72 inches, 156 x 183 cms
Moon Gazing oil on canvas, 11¾ x 9 inches, 30 x 25 cms
Sunrise Prayer oil on canvas, 20 x 30 inches, 51 x 76 cms
Night Walker oil on canvas 61½ x 72 inches, 156 x 183 cms
The Night Walker (Driving Rain) oil on canvas, 72¾ x 54¼ inches, 185 x 138 cms
Moon River oil on canvas, 20 x 30 inches, 51 x 76 cms
Moon Ride oil on linen, 40 x 30 inches, 102 x 76 cms
Blue Horse and Shadows oil on linen, 15¾ x 11 inches, 40 x 30 cms
Eugenie Vronskaya was born in Moscow in 1966. From the age of 9 to 13 she studied icon painting before being accepted by Moscow University s School of Fine Art, the youngest student to be admitted in the College s history. At 22 she applied for a travel visa to the UK. With little money and no contacts she arrived in London and soon found a following for her paintings made on the streets using discarded house paints. Finding a base at the Greenwich Studios she met Sir Anthony Caro who invited her to a summer residency at Pine Planes, New York State there meeting Clement Greenberg, Bob Storrs and working with the artist Larry Poons. Later that year she had her first sell-out show in London and soon after won a bursary to study at the Royal College of Art under Paul Huxley. In 1996 she moved to the Scottish Highlands where she has lived for the last seventeen years with her two sons. Public Collections Pushkin Museum, Moscow, New Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow. Tate Gallery, London, Victoria and Albert Museum, London Education 1975 79 Studied Icon painting, Moscow 1981 83 Moscow School of Art 1983 89 Moscow Fine Art University (BA and MA). 1991 93 Royal College of Art, London (MA), painting Solo Exhibitions 1982 Kuznetsky Most, Moscow 1990 Boundary Gallery, London 1991 Boundary Gallery, London 1995 Socollnic, Gasworks Gallery, London 1995 TMI, Copenhagen, Denmark. 1996 Detatched, Kingsgate Gallery, London 2005 War And Peace, Boundary Gallery, London 2006 Iconostas, Kilmorack Gallery, Scotland 2008 Between The Lines, Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London 2011 River Runs Through..., Kilmorack Gallery Scotland 2012 Solo show, Jane Roberts Fine Art, Fauburg Saint Honoré, Paris 2014 Accidentally Deliberate, Kilmorack Gallery, Scotland 2015 Still Point in a Turning World, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland Awards and Residences 1990 International Artist Workshop Triangle, USA (Invited by Sir Anthony Caro) Glasgow Printmaking Workshop 1991 Visa International Bursary 1992 International Artist Workshop, Pachinpaway, Zimbabwe TMI Award, Denmark 2007 Award Best Local Artist, ICA, Scotland 2012 Ruth Borchard Self Portrait Award
Published by John Martin Gallery for the exhibition Eugenie Vronskaya, The Night Walker 6-21 November 2015 at John Martin Gallery, 38 Albemarle Street, London W1S 4JG Opening hours: Monday to Friday 10am to 6pm and Saturdays, 10am to 1:30pm Images Eugenie Vronskaya Catalogue John Martin Gallery, 2015 Paintings for sale on receipt of catalogue. For all enquiries call Tara Whelan 020 7499 1314 tara@jmlondon.com All paintings can be seen at www.jmlondon.com www.jmlondon.com
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