Syntax Gallery is pleased to announce new exhibition by Olya Kroytor. The exhibition will take place in the NK Gallery in Antwerp (Pourbusstraat 19).
Olya Kroytor - The Extraordinary Act
I
Contemporary art operates within a logic of expansion, displacement, openness, and constant crossbreeding, celebrating hybrid forms and systems. Moving through time and space, the artist creates a proliferation of personal, fragmented narratives that overlay and disrupt linear progressions, conventions, and consensus. From this eclectic and even chaotic “art world” emerged the Russian artist Olya Kroytor. She is considered one of the most remarkable young artists to have emerged from the Moscow scene in the past decade.
She works across various mediums, including painting, collage, installation, sculpture, and performance. She is particularly renowned for her performative pieces, which earned her the Kandinsky Prize in Moscow in 2015 in the category "Young Artist: Project of the Year." Her performances are typically long-duration and predominantly explore themes of endurance, symbolizing social and philosophical concepts.
Her paintings, which blend collages with invented images, are characterized by structures reminiscent of early 20th-century Russian constructivist art. They oscillate between urban scenes and visions of space filled with references to American comics. While her highly conceptual work could be described as "Constructive Pop," there is much more to it. Her art transcends simple categorization, offering a rich tapestry of visual and thematic elements that invite deeper exploration and interpretation.
II
The art of Olya Kroytor is an intelligent hybridization of appropriated and invented elements, which she rearranges on the pictorial surface or within spatial constructions. Her paintings and collages are characterized by a clear structure that incorporates images from American comics, while her sculptures often include letters and words. At first glance, her paintings, which depict modernistic and science fiction architecture, convey a sense of beauty, balanced reminiscence, or a utopian vision. The scenery in these paintings is often set in a "no man's land," if not in outer space. The forms resemble habitations or vessels filled with images of figures. However, there is always a tension within these works, a contradiction that reveals a possible secondary meaning.
The "word sculptures" evoke a similar sensation. Their solid structure frames a cacophony of words and sounds, creating a soundscape where one might catch an ephemeral yet meaningful word or phrase. These scenes induce a sense of unease. In her more recent installation works, such as "My Grandmother is
Fine," there is a latent feeling of mystery, even horror, that permeates the common space. Playing with contradictions, newspaper articles seem to grow like mold out of the beautiful wallpaper, presenting troubling news.
A few years ago, the artist created beautiful and sophisticated serigraphs that play on similar ambiguities. The enunciation—the images and phrases—is framed by a refined composition of geometrical forms and precise juxtaposition of colors that guide the viewer's interpretation. These silkscreens were part of the series of collages titled "Necessary Condition," which has its roots in the artist's childhood fascination with science fiction in literature and cinema.
However, there is an intriguing ambiguity as the stories here are not fictional. The artist used real documents from the past, including quotes from the 1960s newspapers "Nedelia" (translated as "The Week") and "Za rubezhom" (translated as "Abroad" or "Overseas"). These documents are from an era when the world was captivated by the conquest of space, and the Soviet Union demonstrated its greatness by successfully sending the first man into space. The artist commented on these serigraphs, saying: "That we live in this future predicted half a century ago makes us reflect that the act of dreaming and the need for utopias are timeless constants in human beings, regardless of the period. Now that the future has been conquered, the present must be overcome. Harmony is the key to overcoming the madness that surrounds us."
In her more recent serigraphs, which maintain a similar formal elegance and aesthetic quality, we encounter references taken from the press. This time, the artist sourced her material from the Austrian newspaper "Arbeiter Zeitung," which subtly poses existential questions and presents headlines that sow doubt and anchor alternative truths, such as "How do we want to live?" "Finally set us free!" "From day to day," and "Miracles of everyday life." The artist captures and transposes these remarks and questions into her constructive compositions, stating, "It's more a reflection of the times we find ourselves in, through the prism of the past. Times change, headlines remain the same. Witnesses of the time that is going on right now." These works are more enigmatic, focusing on themes of construction, open doors and closed fences, separation and solitude, coldness and calculation in a mysterious way.
Even though Olya Kroytor incorporates readymade images into her paintings, silkscreens, and sculptures, connecting her art to life, they can't match the immediacy of her performances, which forge a particularly strong connection with the audience, both mentally and physically—body to body. Her performances possess a unique natural beauty. They are always, so to speak, "simple" in appearance, yet extremely challenging to execute. Her most spectacular performances are based on physical and mental endurance, sometimes even putting the artist at risk. Despite the poetic and aesthetic qualities of these performances, often indirectly appropriated from art history and fashion, they leave the spectator with a profound sense of anxiety and discomfort.