“There is something in the New York air that makes sleep useless” Simone Beauvoir
Can New York Blender miss a series of paintings on New York City? Sure it cannot. I have been introduced to Katya Leonovich’s art a little while ago and have been always fascinated by her own energy and works, both as an artist and fashion designer.Katya’s visually expressive blasts of emotions cannot go unnoticed. One can like or dislike, question her ideas or follow them, but I find it hard to forget her pieces. Artist herself describes her artwork as being “the antidote of the casualty of existence.” So here we go, let me share with you Katya’s New York City series of paintings, which was recently presented at Dubai Art Week.
The series is about every day’s life and its contradictions: never stopping movement and monumental stillness, deep and vital darkness against inspiring light, breathtaking majesty and suffocating everyday traffic. West versus East. The all-consuming yet releasing City of New York.
This series is composed of two very different parts: “Movement” and “Look Up”.
“New York City Movement” series, is telling the story of life as a tunnel. A tunnel always giving an anticipation of a light in the end, but it is the darkness that is our actual saturated lives. Lives that are constant progress and movement towards that light. New York’s “tunnels” are between concrete walls of buildings, that collide with open spaces full of light, and are flooded with endless motion of cars and people which represent the perfect scene to express the energetic flow of life. City that never sleeps. Never stops. Moving faster and faster. Details behind the car windows are not so clear anymore, smeared. But you just keep on going. Where are you rushing to?
In “New York City Look Up” series artist is taking a closer look at the architectural miracles, the landmarks of New York. Some have influence of Parisian architecture, others Roman columns, or Austrian baroque details. The City is a melting pot of many cultural influences from all over the World. Leonovich calls New York – a modern Babylon, an intersection of different Worlds, traditions and trends. All it takes to see another side of this magnificent city is to distract the eye from window shopping and look up. Up to the buildings and listen to their still voices.
