19 janv. 2022
Zoia Skoropadenko's "Coffee drinkers" at LA Art Show - the most comprehensive art market in the United States
LA Art Show is one of the world's leading art markets, last year it turned 25 years old. This year New York gallery Vellum Projects featured works by artist Zoia Skoropadenko.
This year, more than 80 galleries, museums and art organizations from the United States, Europe and South Korea were participating in the market.
LA Art Show is a meeting place not only for famous artists, but also for designers, architects, collectors - and everyone who is interested in the latest trends in contemporary art.
It is the most comprehensive art market in the United States. Visitors have the opportunity to see not only painting but also sculpture, installations, art photography, video, performance. The new director of LA Art Show Kassandra Voyagis considers the greatest achievement of the first year of her work that the art market has tried to cover absolutely all areas of contemporary art, including NFT and pop surrealism.
This year the main theme of the event is Women, Science, Technology.
In total, this year's exhibition has 5 sections.
In the section MODERN + CONTEMPORARY you can see contemporary paintings and sculptures from galleries in the United States and other countries.
The ROOTS section is about the history and origins of art, here you can see works by contemporary artists who follow the traditions of the past.
A feature of this year's exhibition is the PROJECT SPACE section.
In the WORKS ON PAPER section you can see art photography, lithography.
Also this year, a separate section of EUROPEAN PAVILION highlighted works representing galleries from Europe.
A year ago, the market focused on works by artists from Asia, ink painting. Unfortunately, this year, artists from Asia were unable to enter the art market due to a pandemic. The problem of traveling around the world has also prevented many European artists from attending the event.
Nevertheless, visitors to the LA Art Show was able to admire the works of the Ukrainian artist.
In the WORKS ON PAPER section there are 4 works by Zoia Skoropadenko, linocuts on paper from the series "Coffee drinkers". Two of them are quite large - a portrait of Queen Catherine Perr of England and British composer Thomas Ades.
There are also two portraits of 19th century English aristocrats.
The series were created in 2012, these 4 works were shown for the first time in Los Angeles.
The idea for a series of linocuts "Coffee Drinkers" came to the artist's mind when Skoropadenko worked as a copyist at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. There are a number of paintings in which the characters drink absinthe. This drink used to be very popular, and The absinthe drinkers were painted by the most famous artists: Manet and Monet, Picasso and Toulouse-Lautrec.
In our time, the most popular - and cheapest! - The drink is coffee.
So Zoia began to draw coffee fans.
“Later, while visiting the National Portrait Gallery in London, I admired classical portraits, both chamber and warm. And she thought: why not combine them with coffee - and add a little grotesque in the style of Francis Bacon, the most famous artist of the twentieth century, whose works shocked contemporaries - but at the same time were very positive. The linocut technique was the best for these portraits, which, in fact, appeared in the early twentieth century as one of the cheapest techniques for the artist, "says Zoia Skoropadenko.
Her "Coffee Fans" quickly became popular, some collectors order portraits in this series.
One of the most popular portraits is Queen Catherine Perr, the sixth wife of King Henry VIII of England. Zoia Skoropadenko's portrait attracted her by the fact that he exuded peace. This is exactly the case when the impressions of the portrait completely coincide with the temperament of the person from whom it was painted. Catherine Perr's life was extremely turbulent - she married four times, all her husbands already had children from previous marriages, sometimes older than his stepmother. However, Catherine, thanks to her calm and gentle nature, managed to establish very good relations with all the children of her husbands, except for Princess Mary. Since childhood, Catherine studied a lot, studied foreign languages and philosophy. It was her education and friendliness that attracted the king. Catherine did not stop studying even when she became queen. In this way, Catherine Parr realized not only the eternal dream of all girls to become queen, but also the concept of lifelong learning.
"I used to exhibit with the Vellum Projects gallery in Miami in the United States. I also worked very fruitfully for several years with a gallery in New Port Beach, just 50 miles from Los Angeles.
I have long wanted to enter the art market in Los Angeles, and the Vellum Projects gallery offered me this opportunity. Against the background of the fact that everything is closing in France, LA Art Show is a great opportunity for the artist to remind the world about himself. This year's covid epidemic has made travel very difficult, so I'm staying at home while my work is on display in the United States.