Victoria Miro in association with Parafin presents an extended reality (XR) exhibition of new paintings by Flora Yukhnovich, created during a residency with the gallery in Venice in the autumn of 2019 and completed in her London studio in April 2020. The exhibition is available exclusively online in a virtual gallery on Vortic.
In 2019, Victoria Miro established a studio space in Venice for invited artists to spend extended time in the historic city and make new bodies of work. During a recent two-month residency, Flora Yukhnovich used the opportunity to engage more fully with Venetian culture. Her sources include the music of Vivaldi and the memoirs of Casanova, in addition to one of her key influences, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, whose works including ceiling frescoes in the Ca’ Rezzonico museum and the Chiesa Santa Maria della Visitazione she was able to study first hand.
Since completing her masters degree in 2017, Yukhnovich has received acclaim for paintings in which she adopts the language of Rococo, reimagining the dynamism of works by eighteenth-century artists such as Tiepolo, François Boucher, Nicolas Lancret and Jean-Antoine Watteau through a filter of contemporary cultural references including film, food and consumerism.
A shift in emphasis from predominantly French to Italian influences has, for the artist, resulted in a number of developments and breakthroughs. While Yukhnovich has long been entranced by the idea of the fête galante – a type of painting depicting the wealthy at amorous play in parkland settings that came to prominence with Watteau – Tiepolo’s ceiling paintings have encouraged a more heavenwards focus, bringing with it a change in palette towards celestial blues and pinks and compositions that defy a gravitational pull. Brush marks, freed from describing flesh, become looser, lighter, functioning as directional cues to the viewer.
Of special interest to the artist was Tiepolo’s fresco Wedding Allegory, 1757, in the Ca’ Rezzonico, commissioned in honour of the marriage of Ludovico Rezzonico and Faustina Savorgnan, its radiant sky a backdrop for Apollo’s chariot drawn by four horses, which carries the couple, along with various allegorical figures and a lion, symbol of Venice. Yukhnovich has based one new painting on its colour and composition. Another celestial vision, Tiepolo’s The Coronation of the Virgin, commissioned in 1754 for the newly constructed church of Santa Maria della Visitazione, known as La Pietà, inspired Yukhnovich to work on an oval canvas for the first time.
About Victoria Miro on Vortic
Victoria Miro has worked closely with Vortic – a new extended reality (XR) platform for the artworld – since its inception and is one of only two galleries on the app to launch with its London gallery spaces captured photogrammetrically using the latest high-resolution 3D scanning technology. Vortic’s groundbreaking software and rendering techniques, which have never before been used in the industry, enable Victoria Miro to present exhibitions of 2D and 3D works in the very highest quality. The platform provides a sustainable and engaging way of reaching audiences across the world by offering virtual gallery spaces, supported by two integrated virtual and augmented reality apps.
Vortic will be available to download from the App Store from 15 May.
| Duration | 19 May 2020 - 20 June 2020 |
| Times | online |
| Cost | |
| Venue | Victoria Miro London |
| Address | 16 Wharf Road, London, N1 7RW |
| Contact | 4402073368109 / info@victoria-miro.com / www.victoria-miro.com |