Lena Revenko: последние заметки на всём сайте

First exhibition in France

Tue, 07 Jan 2020 23:46:56 +0200

Je pourrais bien brouiller les pistes
Changer cent milles fois de visage
Rayer mon nom de toutes les listes
Et m’effacer du paysage…

sings Keren Ann in a beautiful song of Abd Al Malik. I love French rap songs, Yann Tiersen, Louise Attaque, Syrano, Stromae. For a long time my favorite artist was Toulouse Lautrec (still love). I am a big fan of French children books illustrators, comics, instagram blog «Desserts in Paris» (where are desserts and fashion shoes in the same style). I like French lightness of being, graffiti, beautiful combinations of words, that make everything sounds like a poetry. Movies: «À bout de souffle», «La Haine» («Le plus dur c’est pas la chute, c’est l’atterrissage»), «The Dreamers» (well, it is by Bertolucci, but still), I have huge Jules et Jim’s poster in my bedroom. The list what I love about France can be long, long, long.

And tomorrow! my works are participating in exhibition in France, I am proud and happy, and wish I could go.

«Amoureusement Papier» in Gallerie Les Souliers Rouges in Clisson, France, and will last from January 8 till March 29.

Теги:
exhibitions

My new studio

Mon, 22 Apr 2019 12:47:34 +0200

Few months ago I’ve decided to turn an old barn in our garden into my studio. After weeks of renovation (mostly made by nice and skillful guy Roman), yesterday was the first day at my working place! I love it so much! This place has everything I like — a lot of space, a huge garden window, a sofa so I can host my creative friends when they come to visit, storage shelves, easel, colors, my computer and cool lights i can adjust.

Теги:
My working place
my_life

Before sponga

Fri, 05 Apr 2019 14:40:38 +0200

* sponga — Hebrew slang for sponging the floor

Теги:
japan
my art

Portrait with a pumpkin of Kusama Yoyoi

Fri, 05 Apr 2019 14:01:20 +0200

«If only you knew out of what trash poems grow»…
© Tsvetaeva

With some of my works I feel like a dj, mixin everything I like in one place. Here a pumpkin by Kusama Yayoi, one of my favorite Japanese Artists, can be easily recognised:

source

But this work actually is inspired by another artist, Boris Kustodiev. He worked in the beginning of 20th century in Russia, drawing festivities, fairs, bazars and happy life of the middle class, known as a talented, but a «bad taste» artist. His worked considered often as too sweet, to decorative and looked often more like illustrations that as a serious art. Kustodiev told about his works, that they should’n be seen as naturalistic, but as illustrations of an illusionary world he created from natural elements.

He made series of merchant’s wives (The first one is my favorite):

* * *

Now remembered, that shortly before I started to draw this work, I saw on fb this funny photoshoped picture. I often see young girls talking like that — holding the phone on three fingers and talking on the mic.

Теги:
japan
my art

#340

Thu, 27 Sep 2018 22:00:45 +0200

flatterer

all in

barber time

Теги:

Magic Forest exhibition, part 1

Thu, 09 Aug 2018 23:18:57 +0200

I take part in Documenta 1, the multi-art exhibition in Froots gallery in Shanghai, and I was asked to tell some stories behind my art. Sometimes when I tell my stories people are disappointed, because they have their own stories and connections. So I usually more curious to ask what the visitors feel and think about my works without giving any clear answer. But sometimes I do share my inspirations, and here are some of them:

Demon, sitting.

…He wandered, now long-since outcast;
his desert had no refuge in it:
and one by one the ages passed,
as minute follows after minute,
each one monotonously dull.
The world he ruled was void and null;
the ill he sowed in his existence
brought no delight. His technique scored,
he found no traces of resistance —
yet evil left him deeply bored.«
(M. Y. Lermontov „Demon“)

This is my homage to Russian artist Mikhail Vrubel’s work „The Demon Sitting“. It used to be my favorite painting when I was 13. I am not sure why, but I liked that this strong, handsome and full of power Demon can be sad, quiet and almost crying. Vrubel was a symbolist. Symbolism was an art movement in the beginning of XX century. Symbolists (very briefly) wanted to show some comlicated feelings and emotions. They took archetypal characters that already has meaning for most of the people (like demon, angel, princess, knight etc) and show the feelings on them.

Demon, Sitting

My Demon is a Black Fox. I use this character in other paintings, and this is how I imagine Don Juan. My Black Fox comes to lonely women and seduces them. But he also has his moments of loneliness and sadness…

more about symbolism, Vrubel, and his Demon

Old Acquaintance

When I was 4-5 years old, I was often ill and sent to my grandparents. For my entertainment my grandfather was reading me by heart long poems. My favorite was „The Little Humpbacked Horse“. It was about cool little magic pony who helped not very smart guy Ivan to get anything he wanted. I still have this book in my studio:

It was a very nice old animated movie, too. The horse has very long ears, and Ivan holds them while riding.

So, it is not surprising that I put this little animal in our Magic Forest. While drawing it, I was thinking — what if all the magical creatures know each other in a way? Like they go to a magic conference once a year to catch up about new magic techniques etc. What if suddenly my little horse meets, for example, Daruma, a Japanese talisman doll for good luck? I have a Daruma doll I bought in old shop in Kyoto, and was always wondering, why the doll that brings good luck looks so angry?

And also I wanted to show this awkward moment, when you suddenly run into somebody from your past:

Old Acquaintance

on the way to a tea party

Recently I was reading my kids a very cute book — „The Tiger Who Came to Tea“ by Judith Kerr:

It’s about a hungry tiger that comes (without invitation) to a little girl Sophie and her mom, eats all their food and drinks all the drinks. I found also a funny „realistic“ version on twitter:

So, what happens if you let the hungry tiger come to your home for tea? By that time I was obsessively collecting images of tigers, mostly korean and chinese:

The tiger in Asian mythology often comes as a Bad Wolf in European fairy tails, you shouldn’t open a door for him. So my tiger, I found it ambivalent. He is bringing the tea with him, and prepared for a traditional tea ceremony, but as schrodinger’s cat, he has inside the potential to be a nice guest or to become a nightmare.

on the way to a tea party

btw, another work, Get Lost, also inspired by vintage tigers. Like on this old chinese rug, I saw many images, mostly from China and Korea with a magpie and a tiger:

»Tigers and magpies is one of the iconic subject matters of Korean folk painting. A magpie is chirping on the top right hand corner and on the centre is a tiger, almost filling the entire painting. The tiger’s body is especially exaggerated and its face looks rather silly so that it seems more familiar than authoritative. The magpie, on the other hand, is painted in a livelier manner, making it look as if the magpie, which represents ordinary people, is scolding the tiger, representing corrupt officials. Originally, tigers and magpies were both symbols for good fortune, but they developed into a major theme in folk paintings as their relationship became more and more satirical.«

In my version the bird pisses the tiger off, she is mocking him, by transforming into a cat:

Get Lost

Теги:
inspiration
my art
process

Nirit and me are working on our Magic Forest collection

Wed, 04 Jul 2018 01:20:43 +0200

The last month I am working on something I never did before. It’s a collaboration with amazing international glass jewelry artist Nirit Dekel. We did before a few projects with my decals on her glass beads and paper monkeys that play with glass, but now it is something else, and I’m fascinated about the process and where it all goes. The idea is to combine my painting with Nirit’s objects, made out of wood and «growing» glass. Here are some photos from the process:

Теги:
my art
collaboration
process

Limor about my exhibition in Fresh Paint

Mon, 02 Jul 2018 22:09:23 +0200

I just found this video)) Better later than never, as we say in Russian. Limor Margulis, the owner of Nox gallery talks about my works at Fresh Paint 10.

Теги:
collaboration
my art
process

On the way to propose

Fri, 29 Jun 2018 13:13:01 +0200

will she say yes?.. :)

Теги:
my art

"Girl with a red cub"

Thu, 28 Jun 2018 00:31:07 +0200

When you don’t trust your babysitter

Теги:
my art