On April 16th ARTIS GALLERY opens the exhibition of Leta Dobrovolskaya and Ekaterina Shinkareva dedicated to the illusive perception of reality, the central concept of the theme was announced as trompe-l’oeil.
Trompe l'oeil (from the French "trompe-l'oeil" − optical illusion) is a technique in visual art for creation of the illusion of three-dimensional images. Due to the performance with visual perception the viewer sees close objects as distant ones, flat – as three-dimensional and extensional deep. Trompe l'oeil has been popular throughout the history of art since Antique Ages, changing and becoming more perfect.
Until today, paintings with trompe l'oeil fascinate, confuse, sink into the mind, shift the border between a real and fictional worlds, bring paradoxical associations and vivid emotions.
The French culturologist and philosopher-postmodernist Jean Baudrillard explored the phenomenon of trompe l'oeil and wrote about it in his essay "Temptation": "No scenes, no spectacle, no action. All this trompe l'oeil puts into oblivion, doing a purely decorative figuraccia of no matter what". The philosopher notes that the trompe l'oeil reflects and describes not reality, but Emptiness, causing the viewer to feel a different reality of the objects depicted in the picture. Trompe l'oeil, according to Baudrillard, simulates the third dimension and, consequently, places its reality in question.
In her works of the series "The Myth" Ekaterina Shinkareva explores the abstract, metaphysical space. The viewer observes either a fantastic alien landscape or a foggy mirage. It is impossible to determine the nature of these images or to recognize which kind of substance they represent: liquid streams, thick steam or solid rocks. Paintings of Shinkareva reflect a mysterious mood through bizarre shapes and light contrasts, which are amplified by ambient music immersing the viewer in the atmosphere of mysticism and mystery.
Paintings of Leta Dobrovolskaya from the series “Trompe l’oeil” are visualizations of still-lives created of everyday things, but assembled in such a way that every composition is a complex metaphor-myth. The artist's Trompe l’oeils are not only a technique, but also a reflection on the essence of painting – as an illusion that reproduces three-dimensional images on the plane. In addition to the works by Dobrovolskaya ARTIS GALLERY presents the installation accordant to the compositions on canvas and raising the question of the ambiguity of our perception.
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