The Gryphon Gallery has launched “Longing for Colors,” the solo exhibition of works by the Kyiv artist Galina Chuprakova-Kazakova. This the first time that Ukrainian art lovers can view her paintings, as she is better known abroad. Her works have been shown in prestigious galleries in Tokyo, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and other cities on the Pacific coast, and purchased by private collectors.
Kazakova was born in Tashkent, where she began soaking up the sun as soon as she was born. This may explain why pure colors, clear contours, and expressive paints are a distinguishing feature of her paintings. Her works from the last three years are the nucleus of the exhibit, which also includes paintings from her St. Petersburg period.
In St. Petersburg, where she lived for 14 years, there was nothing but gray clouds, fog, and raw cold, the artist recalls. “I so wanted to have more space, light, and sunshine, just like in my childhood, when reality seemed to be brighter, more colorful and magical. That was when I started to invent my own reality, one that would shine and breathe.”
There is not a shred of dreariness in the artist’s vision, which is grounded in her sensual perceptions of her surroundings. She seems to switch on a time machine, at first in her internal artistic space. Then she invites viewers to enter the bright hallways of her child’s perception of the world. They are filled with sunshine, brilliant colors, and tears of joy that live inside each of us.
