Vasyl Bazhaj

19/12/2009 - Press-release from Bottega Gallery:

GROUP EXHIBITION @ BOTTEGA GALLERY

Participants: Tyberiy Silvashi, Volodymyr Budnikov, Vlada Ralko, Vasyl Bazhai, Andriy Bludov, Volodymyra Hankevych, Olena Turyanska, Glib Vysheslavsky.

Environment is the sphere where human beings exist, which influences their maturing beginning from the childhood, which affects them whether consciously or unconsciously during the whole lifetime, and due to which people identify themselves in the specific cultural surroundings. As well as this is a space, which can be influenced by the human being primarily through his or her creativity.

Environment is the area where the human being can constantly be found – beginning from the surrounding social and cultural conditions or informational world, up to the building where he or she lives, and objects that are around.

Environment is the open space for the information exchange, exchange of ideas and experience for those who accept the complex of conditions dictated by the contemporary art.

Eight different artists – eight personal environments, where each of them possesses his own art philosophy, are united by the specific environment of the Ukrainian contemporary art in the space of Bottega Gallery.

More details…

03/07/2009,  Bottega Gallery, Kyiv, UKRAINE

Untitled. Oil on canvas. 60x60, 2009

The intensive crescendo of the violin part was sounding in the studio, and the mind was reacting actively on the sound formations and passages, organizing its code with the key word “Paganini”. That is how I imagined to myself what has induced Vasyl Bazhay to start his new art cycle. The astonishment was endless. Twinkling spaces, expressive dab and abstract-figurative composition of the last works were changed by majestic areas with well-defined outlines of colour-saturated forms.

New works of the artist are opening absolutely another, unknown potential of form creativity where the rich colour plays not the last role, as a tool of origin of the painting form. As never before, the painting areas sound in two ways: when you come closer – you see the classical, “your own” Bazhay, when you step aside – the new Bazhay appears – the master of form metaphysics, illusion creator. “Paganini” made his deal – he encoded the figurative language of the author into the new format. Contrast and counterpoint of the areas give rise to the depth and extensionality of the platitude that used to be flat.

Untitled. Oil on canvas. 175x147, 2009.

This is the new stage – generally another approach of Bazhay to the picturesque structure, but there are no reasons to say it appeared spontaneously. In the beginning of the 90-s the artist started with two personal exhibitions. Some of the paintings presented there possessed the similar energy. But probably the time for the further development of this cycle hasn’t yet come. Up to today. As well as James Cameron has matured the ideas of his “Avatar” for nearly seven years, Vasyl Bazhay internally worked with the form metaphysics. The examples of these experiments partially appeared in different projects and at last materialized in the project “Paganini”.

Roman Hankevych, art critic

More informations as well as small gallery of new paintings can be seen at “Bottega Gallery” web-site.