A selection of some of the works Ulyana Gumeniuk produced as the Fellow Commoner in Creative Arts at Trinity College Cambridge, 2009-2011.
A set of large scale figurative paintings revisit the concept of Grand Historical Paintings of the 18th and 19th centuries in the context of current political events. This series of works addresses the representation of death in the media, energy consumption on the macro and micro scale (Consumed 2 , Mitochondria), the debt-dependent economy of compulsive consumerism. It also scales our capacity for detachment from the tragedies of our century.
Stylistically figurative elements/material are transformed through sets of mathematical conditions in a method not dissimilar to that of artist Tim Head, filmmaker Tony Conrad or composer Iannis Xenakis. Much of the imagery in the work comes from newspaper cutouts, as well as the artist’s own photographs and sketches made in the Zaporizhia Steel factory in Ukraine, the BP Saltend Plant in Britain and reconstructed models of rubbish dumps.
“Painting is a process through which I attempt to unravel, that is to understand, or simply brake down those issues on the canvas”.
Ulyana Gumeniuk gives new life to figurative imagery in painting. Images are “spliced” into geometric shapes that are first outlined on the canvas. These shapes are borrowed from scientific data and reference crystalline structures created by ribosomes, curves of mitochondria organelles or follow a simple binary distribution sequence of 0/1 (Consumed 1 and 2, 0/1). Interacting layers or volumes of representational elements relate in such a way that the viewer identifies the elements and yet at the same time perceives them as abstract "movements" of colour and shape.
The daughter of a Ukrainian artist-dissident Ulyana Gumeniuk had a turbulent artistic childhood. She had first hand experience of secret gatherings of nonconformist art groups in Leningrad including meetings of the Sterligov group (Sterligov was a student of Malevich), where she was introduced to constructivist and formalists concepts at the early age of 9. After attending State Art School at 11, she went on to study at the Art Academy in Saint Petersburg where she also received a classical training evident in her oil painting technique, for instance in Pipes 2 which borrows stylistically from the dome paintings of Italian baroque churches.
Through a benefaction and portrait commissions she went on to finish her studies at London's St Martins School of Art in 1996.
Since then she has had a successful career, exhibiting with artists like Paula Rego in Belgium and France and at Luke and A
gallery in London and had a solo show at Zaporizhia State Muzeum in Ukraine. She has also taken part in projects at South London Gallery and at Tate Modern.
Her works are held in public collections in Trinity College Cambridge; Princeton University, USA; Zaporizhia Art Museum, Ukraine; CUAF Museum, Toronto, Canada; Commune de Senigallia Museum, Italy; the Collection of the Trustee of the Art
Museum of Maryland, USA, and in private collections in Belgium, England, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, South Africa, Russia, Ukraine and the USA.
Oct 2010 CRASSH, Robinson College, Cambridge: Seminar, ”Composition Time and Attention”, discussion with Alyce Mahon.
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May 2010 Trinity College Cambridge: “Constructing Paintings” .
May 2009 National Gallery: Set of talks/demonstrations and a video presentation on the painting techniques of Jan Van Huysum's still-life; “Flowers in a Terracotta Vase”.
Jan 2007 National Gallery: Discussing painting technique of Diego Velasquez and 17th century Spanish painting on the example of 'Adrian Pulido Pareja' by Mazo.
Jun 2004 National Portrait Gallery, Ondaatje Wing Theatre: presentation and discussion of work done as part of the BP Travel Award