Kononova Svetlana

Russian artist, photographer and designer from Moscow born in 1996. Participant and organiser of exhibitions. Works and lives in Tbilisi.

Preferred methods of work - graphics, painting, object, mixed technique photography, printed graphics.

In her work the author refers to the themes of sacred, sacrificial, subconscious, as well as to the concepts of femininity and fragility.

EDUCATION:

2023 Art Residency Trikotazhka, Sergiev Posad
2022 Production course for artists by Tatiana Pinchuk
2017 - 2021 Ilya Glazunov Russian Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, "Theory and History of Art" direction
2013 - 2017 Moscow Academic Art School, "Graphic Design" specialisation

EXHIBITIONS:

2023 - "Melting", S/19 Gallery, Moscow
2022 - "Demiurge forges his destiny", gallery "Third Floor", Moscow
2021 - "ADVENT. The Beginning", State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
2020 - "The Eternity of Time", Moscow Multidisciplinary Cultural Centre, Moscow
2015 - MAHU. 1925 - 2015. Tradition and Modernity, Pavilion Karelia, VDNKh, Karelia

"My art is a silence in which rare sounds are heard - drops falling into a vessel of water.

In my artistic practice, I strive to move away from the secondary, unnecessary, from noise and imposed desires. My method consists in an intuitive search for the essence of things and their relationship to the human world, in meditative contemplation of fragile, impermanent beauty, and in the rejection of utilitarianism. In my perception, the acute experience of the frailty and finitude of material things is not tragic, but rather something to be ironised. Intimacy and melancholy go hand in hand with self-irony and the grotesque. I explore the notion of self-control, of violence against oneself and others, through the aesthetics of mythical hunting.

"In my search for simple expression, I keep artistic techniques to a minimum. In graphics, the transitions from saturated lines and spots to the empty space of the sheet reveal the "backbone" of the form. The background often disappears altogether, making the texture of the paper work as an infinite space. The natural materials used for the objects and archival paper are devoid of lustre, their loose surface softly absorbing the rays of light. The patina of antiquity, the patina, the darkness of condensed time create a special warmth."

Sventlana Kononova, an artist