Erarta Museum of Contemporary Art presents a solo exhibition by Marina Khudyakova fusing the structural preciseness of architecture with the magic of colour and computer graphics
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An architect’s vision and new media finding ultimate expression in the creative practice of one of Russia’s digital art pioneers
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Colour, light, and symmetry as means of transforming everyday experiences into metaphors
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A new stage in the development of visual arts where the physical medium no longer holds sway over the artist
A certified architect, Marina Khudyakova spent a lot of time in the 1980s and 90s designing exhibition spaces. As one of Russia’s digital art pioneers, she created a series of wall panels on the subject of Medical Science in Art for the museum of the Nikolai Burdenko National Medical Research Centre of Neurosurgery, as well as digital panels for the art exhibition space of the Museum of Heroes of the Soviet Union and Russia.
Marina’s artworks are meticulously structured and planned, testifying to her professional background. Their compositions are often built around mirror symmetry and mutual reflections of forms and colours, the latter usually vibrant yet transparent.
All these devices help render a world that appears vaguely familiar, evoking the childhood days when one would look through a kaleidoscope and feel everything else recede as the sunlight, filtered through colourful bits of glass, miraculously transformed and rearranged reality. The symmetry and magical transparency of colours in Marina Khudyakova’s oeuvre is also reminiscent of medieval stained glass windows. In Gothic cathedrals, the light filtering through biblical scenes symbolised the radiance of divine glory, manifesting the Light of Truth.
Marina Khudyakova is famously attentive to detail, striking the fine balance between compositional clarity and intensity of colour. This results in the emergence of an emotionally charged artistic realm, lending the artworks a richness of meaning and philosophical profundity.
Since its inception, digital art has evolved from a mere technical experiment to a full-fledged art form. In a dream-come-true of the artists of the past, physical medium nearly ceased to hold sway over the creator. No longer bound by the composition and thickness of paints or quality of canvas, the creative vision is finally free and unrestrained. One of the trailblazers at this new stage in the development of visual arts, Marina Khudyakova effectively connects the dots between the artistic traditions of the past and present.
Born in 1948 in Leningrad, Marina Khudyakova graduated from the Moscow Institute of Architecture in 1973. In 2021, she was elected Associate Member of the Contemporary Arts Chapter of the Russian Academy of Arts and awarded the Academy’s Silver Medal. A prominent presence at contemporary art exhibitions, the artist currently lives and works in Moscow.
