Katya Emelyanova

Exhibiting Artist: Katya Emelyanova

Katya Emelyanova (b. 1984) is a multimedia artist, photographer and sculptor. Her practice addresses the phenomenology of the aesthetic effect mediated through art objects. She calls for evoking positive emotions, direct experience and simplicity of access and impression, echoing the practices of fauvism and abstractionism. The vivid colours and shapes appear first as ideas, which traverse through materialisation filtering down towards finding the appropriate aesthetic form. Despite the immediacy of engagement with the viewer, her works are intricate and often technologically complex, requiring the artist to collaborate with engineers.

The traditions of aniconism, semiotics, totemism and expressionism inform her sculptural works.

She masterfully blends clay, glaze, stone and other materials in playful and meticulously orchestrated shapes and colours. The forms and references in the Oliver People series take subtle cues from the indigenous cultures of North Eurasia, Siberia and the Far East, providing visibility forn the aesthetics that had been long overlooked during the Soviet era of homogenising control. The glazed clay, shiny marble and other striking textures juxtapose to create a unique effect on the viewer, simultaneously mesmerising, confusing and evoking almost primal desire.