EASTERN
EUROPEAN ARTIST AT KAREN GALLERY
By
Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 22 August 2018)
Daria Mirzoyants
is only 16, but the visiting artist who’s come all the way from Eastern Siberia,
has big dreams.
The first
place to begin understanding how large her lofty goals are is to go see her
exhibition entitled ‘Dreams of Childhood’ today (Saturday, 24 August) at the
Polka Dot Gallery in Karen.
Most of the
art that she has on display at Polka Dot is pen and ink in black and white.
Most of her drawings have been conceived while she’s been in Kenya visiting her
family.
Both her
parents are art-lovers but it’s her mother Anastasia who’s the avid collector
of Kenyan artists’ paintings. She’s also active in the development field, which
is why she’s living in Kenya currently. But she’s also the one who’s played a
large part in inspiring her daughter Daria to take up painting seriously.
In fact, one
of her paintings entitled ‘Catcher in the Rye’ is the title of the American
writer J.D. Salinger’s book about a confused adolescent who struggles to make
sense of who he is and what he wants in life. Her painting depicts a child who’s
half human, half horse, rather like the centaur found in Greek mythology.
That feeling
of confusion is also apparent in her painting entitled ‘My Choice’. Carefully drawn with a refined attention to
detail, the youth in the painting is standing on a ledge as if contemplating
whether to jump or not.
We often
hear about young people’s slipping into suicidal tendencies, so Daria seems to
be depicting that same silent anguish. At the same time, that character on the
ledge might be getting set to fly, a skill seen in many a super-hero’s scenerio.
But that ambiguity in her imagery is what makes one appreciate the depth of
this teenager’s feeling for life.
In fact,
Daria also has paintings in her Polka Dot show like one entitled ‘Happiness’
and another named simply ‘Reading’. Both portray a child at peace with her dog,
her teddy bear and a good book keeping her occupied and apparently content.
In the end,
one can see that Daria deserves to have graduated with honors from the art
school in her home town. But still, there is one distinctive quality in her art
that she seems to share with a number of young Kenyan artists. And that is a
fascination with comic book characters.
Now I could
be reading too much into her drawings and totally misinterpreting her intent. But
Daria definitely has the skill of a meticulous graphic illustrator, the kind
who is currently taking the creation of comic book characters to a level of
illustration that comes close to the realm that is called fine art.
Perhaps
Daria hasn’t studied comic book characters the way many young Kenyan artists
have. But that quality of animated creativity is clearest in her painting
entitled ‘Spirit of the Times’. In it, she draws a man who has a semi-Salvador
Dali moustache and a roguish smile. Meanwhile, he seems to be surrounded by
abstract images that have a cacophonous character to them.
So while
Daria’s artistic career is just beginning, she’s already shown she’s capable of
taking her childhood dreams into another wider realm altogether.
No comments:
Post a Comment