The Art Vacancy (TAV) is pleased to present its fourth The Next Gen (TNG) program, The Next Gen: Lita Poliakova. TNG is an initiative created to offer emerging artists the opportunity and resources to present a solo exhibition in collaboration with TAV.
Lita Poliakova (Life Is Torturing Awesome) is a visual artist of Russian origin who is currently based in Germany. She received her Bachelor’s degree in graphic design and fine arts from Baltic University of Foreign Languages and a second Bachelor’s degree in Intercultural Communications from State University of Technology in Saint-Petersburg, Russia. Following her studies in Russia, she turned to more contemporary art and obtained her Master’s degree in visual culture and contemporary art at Aalto University (Helsinki, Finland) where she settled the key topics of her practice: distortive nature of pain, identity, and social constructs. During her studies, she was granted an Erasmus+ scholarship, which allowed her to get advanced training in visual arts at Faculty of Fine Arts at Porto University (Porto, Portugal). In addition, she has produced a project at the 32nd Sao Paulo Biennale (Sao Paulo, Brazil), where she worked with visitors and challenged their expression of mental image of color associated with a notion of home. That same year she was engaged in an international art program within the Process Space art festival (Ruse, Bulgaria) where she enriched her toolbox with mixed media techniques. Currently, Poliakova is developing her work to depict distortion in her own custom-made media while meditating on issues, such as sexuality and power, as well as mass culture, by means of collage.
Poliakova’s inaugural solo exhibition, Coming Inside Out, illustrates an interflow that unites the notions of suffering and consumption — both are unavoidable and destructive. The transformation leaves its traces, scars, and wounds, which are depicted in introspective psychological portraits.
According to the current scientific paradigm, all organisms consist of the same chemical elements. The constant circulation of matter is always present. The matter is decomposing, being digested and rebuilt — our being is based on this circulation, portraying decay connects physical and emotional experiences.
Poliakova’s comprehensive medium, custom-made natural ink, represents the interrelation between the species. The ink serves as an aid to visualizing human covers as a part of the biosphere. Individuals exchange pain within the dynamic environment by sharing, retranslating, and consuming. Consumed substances become a part of us, constitute a part of us — body with its fluids, tissues, and bones, as well as our pain. Poliakova’s work is a metaphor that physically encapsulates the essence of this merge.
OPEN HOURS
Tuesday: by appointment only
Wednesday: by appointment only
Thursday: 12 – 5pm
Friday: 12 – 5pm
Saturday: 12 – 5pm
Sunday: 12 – 5pm
Sunday: 12 – 5pm
For appointments, please contact Sáng at sang@theartvacancy.com