“MASTERS” gallery programme

ceramics by Zhannetta Solovyova

21.12.2016 – 14.01.2017

In the works of Zh. Solovyova, one can feel a striving for that contemplative quality of the object which is inherent only in sculpture in the round. But she never forgets the laws of beauty inherent specifically in ceramics. Knowledge of the material and various techniques of glazed painting of the object enhances the sense of strength, integrity, and completeness of the work. But most importantly, the style of the author herself is invariably and precisely present in them. It, too, cannot be reduced to a striving for rationally conceived and sensually refined simplicity and the functional-decorative unity of the composition. She herself knows when and how to decorate an object, how to subordinate the line of color to its form, how to make use of the texture and structure of the material.

And then, moving in the rhythm of free creative experimentation and obeying the flight of plastic imagination, the ceramic artist constructs her narrative about good and evil, wisdom and frivolity, human history and the history of an object’s life, the values of the real and imaginary worlds. As a result, her vessels, figurines, jugs, and cups acquire that degree of plastic metaphorism which, perhaps, is revealed with all its sharpness and fullness only in graphics and painting. Zhannetta transfers this sharpness and depth into ceramics.

from an article by art historian Oleh Koval for the artist’s catalogue.