Earthenware is possibly the most ancient way of self-realization through creativity. These days they have become immensely modernized, absorbing new styles and production techniques. This is especially noticeable in the creative work of the renowned ceramist Nelli Isupova who combines the contemporary motives and images with the ancient traditions of Ukrainian ceramic painting. For 40 years already, Isupova’s ceramic masterpieces have been a matter of Ukrainians’ astonishment. Specialized in ceramic production, she has worked at a majolica plant since Soviet times. Now Nelli views her profession as a pure formality. However, it was thanks to her profession that Isupova had an opportunity to take up her favorite craft. Isupova is among the few people who have managed to preserve the national traditions of the Ukrainian ceramic painting in their works, and at the same time reveal new quaint shapes, and insert philosophical notions, abstract images and her own vision of the world.
Recently Kyiv’s Dukat Gallery hosted an exhibit called “Nelli Isupova’s Fancies,” representing the artist’s 40 works, executed in the majolica style. The author notes that majolica enables her to realize her ideas the way they live in her imagination, because this technique has no restrictions or bans. Nelli has experimented for a long time, but it was only majolica that enabled her to feel true freedom of expression. “Majolica offers unlimited possibilities, which is exactly what I need,” Isupova said, “My images do not come to me as a whole, rather they gradually develop with each stroke. This is possible only in the majolica style, because it does not forbid errors, on the contrary, it gives them a new figurative interpretation.” But majolica can also be varied. The author has chosen the brightest colors for her works. Interestingly, she never mixes the paints: “For me there are only seven natural colors, known and applied by everyone. Why can’t everyone produce a nice effect? I think it is about the ability to combine them and find contrasts.”
The exhibit presented fanciful flowers and trees, which, according to the author, could symbolize life with its unexpected shapes and changes in philosophical reinterpretation. The exhibit’s supervisors made entire magic gardens of these works, notably with fish and birds within them.
Smiling, Nelli told about the drawback of her work, “I never have and cannot have any secrets, as all of them are revealed through my works.”
