Margarita Ivanova
Margarita Ivanova is a portrait painter who exhibits across Central Asia and Eastern Europe with participation in various art fairs and venues such as the Danilovsky Congress Hall and Zen Art Festival in Moscow and ARTCONTACT Art Fair in Istanbul. She describes her work as ‘metamodernism’ and ‘oscillation’ which remains influenced by the exposure in film as an effect which interests her as “a phraseological unit of the pictorial language, abstract syntactic elements”.
With a quiet intensity, these theatrical portraits blur the lines of tradition with post-modernism through atmospheric tension in sharp, erratic, short brush strokes which remain naturalistic rather than impressionistic. The works could be described as more refined than expressive in the careful rendering of forms, however there remains a deep nuance to her brushwork which reflect a loose application of visual apprehension.
Ranging from monochromatic sfumato and haze-filled backgrounds to portraits with pop art backdrop inclinations, Margarita expresses the deep psychology of the figure through subtle fleshy texture. Much like the work of Peter Paul Rubens, Margarita could be described as a master of facial expressions as her subjects feel alive with penetrating eyes and subtle quiver of the lips. Her subjects appear deep in thought and in contemplation with both their surrounding environment and the viewer’s gaze. The women in the paintings carry a dignified presence with the quiet intensity in their eyes and direct focus on the audience. Their subtle facial motions appear as if prepared to engage in direct conversation remarking on our appearance rather than theirs.
One of Margarita’s pieces from the Birch series (pictured above) depicts a woman with bright red hair, blushing cheeks, and deep, penetrating blue eyes. Her face contains intense yet muted bright colors from the pale cerulean blue in the eyes to her peach colored hair as well as her rosy cheeks and lips. She almost fades into the background like an apparition or angel appearing to the audience in a rumination. Like an illusory experience, she enters our space and appears as if she could be slowly blending into the light.
Margarita Ivanova engages the audience with deep musings in the reflection of atmospheric paintings which not only appear illusory but feel engaging in the psychological poses of sensitive facial expressions. Through the lifting of the eyes, the uneven lips, or quiet intensity in facial muscles and structure, Margarita reveals characters, not just subjects. These women have a narrative to share however the viewer must use their imagination with clues contained in the atmospheric tension and gripping engagement. Rarely can an artist be able to communicate so much with so little as Margarita transmits through intense psychological impulses with just portraits containing puristic backgrounds revealing characteristic brush strokes and the ability to capture subtle naturalistic details which feel authentic and deeply observed.
