ANASTASIA BENKO
“In life we are all faced with challenging episodes, but art has always had the superpower to nurture my soul. To me it has the transformational energy to create meaning out of void. So it’s up to you and me to fill these colors with hopes, dreams and a sense of wonder we all have.”
Anastasia has carved a hopeful path for herself as a visual artist: pushing boundaries and an ever evolving, optimistic visual language is a driving force to conquer daily challenges. Exploring themes like impermanence she finds herself most inspired when she can play with topics rooted below the surface of beauty. Her works mirror a relentless search for a sense of shared togetherness and joy.
sorbet series
Refining the brightest moments and elements has always been the leitmotif in all my work. The first paintings of the sorbet series were created in 2018 because I had lost my ease in the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Deliberately I wanted to jump off the carousel of what we call perfectionism and I felt that the complex wet-on-wet technique was the perfect exercise for giving up control and throwing myself into chaos. It started as a meditative experiment of patience: more than 70 layers of neon pigments create an energizing aura. Throughout the day, the luminosity shift from being delicate to becoming a vibrant force. Distilling the most powerful colors to their essential core has brought back the whimsical and fearless flow I had cultivated all my life.
illustrations
A few charcoal strokes divide a flat expanse of paper and seem to illustrate life’s fragility in the most vulnerable form. Simultaneously it’s up to you to fill this crack in space and time with meaning.
