Set alongside a store offering exclusive Ralph Lauren Home and Yves Delorme products, Ural Vision Gallery is exhibiting ‘Summer Garden’ by Olga Tobreluts until June. Using contemporary printing technology but exploring classic themes, Tobreluts creates a warm island of calm in the bustle of the city.
“I became fascinated by the idea of fragmentation of the thinking process in modern man and the new visual opportunities created by the multimedia revolution,” explains Olga.
Moving from the contemporary art circle of St. Petersburg to Berlin, Olga discovered video and computer technology before returning to classic painting. “To do this, I had to stop and start all over again,” says Olga. “I learned a lot from restorers and copyists. With the appearance of lenticular printing, I began experimenting again but I continued to paint as I had found an interesting technique.”
Lenticular printing uses lenses to create an illusion of depth, the image moving as the viewer changes angles. Olga was awarded first prize at the Lenstar Lenticular Print Awards in Frankfurt in 2016.
A huge retrospective at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art also collated her artworks from different periods in time. “The main result was that my works have one unified style, even if they were created in various techniques and mediums.”
A walk around ‘Summer Garden’ at the Ural Vision Gallery is somewhat discombobulating. Images of historic St. Petersburg statuary, backdropped by balls of pukh, the omnipresent fluff of balsam poplar trees that accompanies every Russian summer, give the timeless illusion of a stroll on a warm day. But lurking amid the holograms are more sinister figures, altering the pleasant associative memories and sensations.
Olga currently divides her time between St. Petersburg and an artistic community in Pacsa, west Hungary. “It has beautiful countryside and amazing people,” she says. “This is my base for European exhibitions and my workshop. It’s an incredible place. My other artist friends live close by and we communicate and work together a lot.”
Having already exhibited at Budapest’s Kunsthalle and the prestigious MODEM in Debrecen, Olga is sure to have her works featured elsewhere in Hungary and the region.
As for the UVG, Alla Loschenko outlines: “This summer we will open an exhibition by Daniil Arkhipenko, an artist with huge potential. The basis for the show will be his project ‘Unbound Observer’, in which the artist reflects on freedom and personal boundaries in the modern cultural landscape. The painting on light boxes and lenticular printing from this series also became the basis for the design of the St. Petersburg metro station Novokrestovskaya. This, in turn, has set the global precedent of transforming the public space of the metro station into a permanent exhibition of contemporary art.
We also plan to take part in several international art fairs, including Cosmoscow, Art Market Budapest and the Vienna Contemporary”.
Alla remains clear as to the gallery’s main mission: “We will continue to cooperate with well known Russian creatives, to support young artists, and provide art residences in Budapest. We strive to promote the contemporary art of Russia in Hungary and beyond, therefore we need to participate at art fairs throughout Europe, and gain broader access on a global level. We believe that this platform in our development has great social, cultural and economic potential”.
UVG Gallery
Address: District V. Falk Miksa utca 7 Website
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