wanderlust

2013: Resolutions From Familiar Faces pt. 2

As the years always seem to do, 2013 has arrived out of nowhere. To celebrate new starts, we are featuring New Year’s resolutions throughout the week from favorite BAPS artists. Who knows, you might get some inspiration! 

Elisabeth Mlandelov:

This year starts with the completing of my first work as an art book editor: the monograph of sculptor Lilli Stenius, published in four languages by De Luca Editori in Rome. Later, the year will bring about an exhibition I am looking forward to, which takes place in the former home and atelier of the Museum of Finland’s currently most prominent painter, Akseli Gallen-Kallela.

For me the resolve towards self-improvement isn’t really seasonal, I try to keep it a constant. For that to be possible, health and calm precede everything else. What’s new this year is my inspiration towards collaboration. I want to experiment with collaborative work methods even in the traditionally solitary medium of painting, but also across the divisions between art fields.

 A resolution for the coming year is not to mull over whether it makes sense to dedicate a lot of my time to other arts: music and writing. And then two would be simple things: whenever possible, no Internet before lunch, and also make time for a summer vacation.  

Maryna Baranovska:

My New Year resolution is to open doors through working on my projects and to overcome any obstacle – I’m open minded and I let the light guide me towards new ways.

For February, I’ve scheduled a solo show with Berlin gallerist Anna Jill Lüpertz. The show will consist of a series of paintings titled “fairytale country”. Through this Project–which I’ve started in 2008–I want to illustrate a certain time in my life and transform it by ways of figurative painting. My intention was to tell a story of my own and thus I created my own mysterious universe: A narrative journey into my subconscious, told by six oil paintings on canvas sized 3×2 meters.

Hanging from left to right, the first painting to see will be “Madame Octopus”, jumping from the past into the future. Then there’s “Death”– an ironic look at my own life. “Industrialized landscape” will discuss the transformation our world is going through. After that “Plüm”– a word I invented myself to describe a kind of explosion and which I use in my everyday vocabulary. This is followed by something really new: “Looking for the new earth”. I painted that one after my “Forest series” – which was almost monochrome – to explore a different kind of painting that’s more expressive and emotional. “Looking for the new earth” is my take on “Noah’s Ark” – and last, but

not least there will be the “Running boar”, an entire painting filled with fairytale creatures.

In the center of the exhibition there will be installed an illuminated “witch hut”, through which a tree is growing. It is not possible to enter the hut, but one can look inside through the windows. The artist’s workshop will be visible, and although the artist will not be present, one will witness the moment of “magic”, because in this space
the spirit of painting will rule. Its walls will be filled with small format oil paintings which will encourage the viewer to build up his or her own mythological narratives along beings commonly well-known.

Beyond that, I am looking for future opportunities here and abroad, I’m planning to apply for the Berlin Senate grant and most of all, I’m really focusing on my painting this year.  

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