exhibition

Lora Malysheva. By the Window

08 September 2021 — 28 November 2021
  • Lora Malysheva. By the Window

Erarta Museum presented an exhibition of paintings and pastels by Lora Malysheva – a window overlooking a pristine and blissful Eden by the Black Sea

  • Tranquil observation as a source of quiet joy
  • Experiments with vitreous enamels
  • Vibrant and saturated colours born in the heat of the firing kiln
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By the Window is a showcase of paintings, enamels, and pastels created by Lora Malysheva over the past three decades. Malysheva’s oeuvre is akin to a colourful midday dream that offers the tired 21-century urbanite a welcome and peaceful respite. Watching the world go by from the familiar safe haven of her home, the artist invites us to join her by the window overlooking a pristine and blissful Eden by the Black Sea.

Born into the family of an artist, Lora Malysheva decided to follow in her father’s footsteps. She graduated from the Mitrofan Grekov Odessa Art College and went on to study in Leningrad. Malysheva’s art found due appreciation in the St. Petersburg artistic community, but truly blossomed back in her home town of Odessa where the artist had to return due to family commitments. There, under the luminous southern sun, Lora Malysheva began experimenting with vitreous enamel – an artistic medium requiring much patience and effort. The lyricism and intimacy of tone that enamels tend to convey lend Malysheva’s creations a perceptible lightness of being.

The vibrant, highly saturated colours born in the heat of the firing kiln glow like flecks of sunlight on the mirror-like waters. Light streams across surfaces, snowcaps sparkle on the mountain peaks, and rosy copper gleams through the dark blue grapes. With refined and reserved faces and ceremonially smooth gestures, the beautiful women of the South are laying festive tables. We see them strolling or conversing, sometimes in the company of alabaster white lambs, jet black dogs, or speckled hens. This straightforward symbolism does not have to be decoded: despite their obvious nod to the Renaissance aesthetics, Lora Malysheva’s artworks refrain from testing the viewer’s knowledge of art history. The paradise is real, it truly exists, and in order to see it one does not have to embark on a long and perilous journey. Sometimes all it takes is to sit down by the window just like the contemplating artist does: perhaps the source of serenity and quiet joy lies exactly in such tranquil contemplation.

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