“Indiscreet Charm” is a solo exhibition of Roman Reznitsky. The exhibition highlights paintings created by the artist over the last few years. Reznitsky works both in Russia and other countries. The painter juxtaposes visual art and pop culture, develops the role of the contemporary artist as a brand, and searches for opportunities to collaborate with others. Reznitsky’s visual language is directly impacted by his extensive experience in graphic design and marketing.
The exposition is comprised mostly of large square canvases. Many of the paintings are created in the expressive style of pop art. The subject matter is inspired by mass culture, daily life, and symbols relevant to the painter. These are in a significant part thematic puzzles where everything is not as it seems: shadows form faces of lovers, crosswalk patterns are transformed into an ancient row of columns, and coffee fumes become an air kiss. Despite the similarity to pop art, Reznitsky does not utilize templates or printing techniques. He prefers to create art with brush and paint. Drawing on the aesthetics of ad campaigns, the painter uses bold colors, combines various methods, and experiments with composition and scale.
Artworks in the technique of dot art deserve special mention. Dot art is an adapted version of pointillism. The image is rendered in patterns of multiple small dots. For the contemporary audience, however, dot art appears to have more to do with screen or halftone printing. The effect is similar to urban ad banners which, upon closer inspection, turn out to be a mishmash of chaotic rounded lines. Without a doubt, anyone can relate to this impression. For his dot art works, Reznitsky foregoes all color and focuses on representing the depth and volume through the use of only tonal intensity by varying the density of the dot clusters or extending the spaces in between the dots. The main characters of these series are the so-called “ideal women.” Their bodies and facial features are at the forefront. The protagonists include both the successors of Mona Lisa and the highly sexualized stars of modern social media. It quickly becomes evident that the culture of the body is prone to continuous fashion changes. The concept of beauty, once thought of as a part of high culture, by now is very much a part of pop culture, always striving to modify itself in light of the demands of a wide audience of onlookers.
As is the case with renowned pop artists, Reznitsky both faithfully reproduces and subtly parodies everyday reality. On the one hand, his artworks are centered around depersonalized samples of the consumer culture. On the other hand, these are very much hyperbolic visions of the subject manner, meticulously choreographed scenes and situations. The artworks happily prove in the viewer the pleasure of recognizing the familiar. It is easy to discover elements of the surrounding material existence in Reznitsky’s art. However, each canvas tells a very personal story: “My goal is to ensure that a hundred years from today future art lovers will be able to infer from my paintings what our current society was like.”
Curator:
An Kubanova
Artist:
Roman Reznitsky
