During Artissima 2023, Import Export will show a presentation of works by Masha Silchenko (b. 1993, Odesa, UA) in the Present Future section curated by Saim Demircan and Maurin Dietrich.
With this year’s edition of the fair being organised around the joint theme of “relations of care”, we present a selection of her new Bleach Paintings and ceramics from Scaries. In her work, Silchenko often speaks about love, loss and longing for home – topics that are specific to her personal situation as a Ukrainian national but also very universal.
Silchenko holds an MFA from École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. During her studies, she participated in the exchange programme with the Geidai Tokyo University of the Arts, which included a year in a traditional Japanese pottery studio. Having graduated, she also completed a residency at the Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg, focusing on experimental painting.
This unconventional training, together with her erudition in literature, music and philosophy, allowed Silchenko to develop a unique aesthetic and a working method that escapes medium-based classifications. By juxtaposing lyrical narratives (poetry, songs, tales) with experimental gestures (bleaching, erasing, tearing), Silchenko formulated her own language of expression related to love, loss and longing. Silchenko describes her practice:
“In my work, I have developed a practice of painting that crosses other techniques such as drawing, sculpture, and sometimes performative elements and sounds. In this floating universe, between craftsmanship and decorative tradition, I’m trying to bring to life a world of fantastic figures and ghosts inhabiting materials and objects. There are repeating, intertwining, and transforming motifs and symbols, coming from nature, myths and dreams.”
