Art on a Postcard x War Child UK 2024 Part I

About

Sofya was born in Moscow, Russia and moved to Aberdeen in 2009 with her family. She now lives and works in Glasgow. Sofya is a multimedia artist who combines drawing, painting and film. She explores the theme of displacement through her experience of living between two countries. The work captures a feeling of placelessness and mourning for the impossibility of a return.

The compositions stem from Sofya’s old childhood photos taken by her parents and memories of her home in Russia. However, these photos act as a starting point for the works but are not the subject. By juxtaposing objects, animals, birds and people together, she explores displacement and ambiguity in the pieces. The depicted landscape is never a particular place, rather something imaginary or dreamlike. Sofya invites the viewer to find connection with her characters and perhaps, construct their own narrative.

https://www.sofyatagor.com

Education

BA(Hons) Fine Art - Painting

Robert Gordon University, Gray’s School of Art

Select Exhibitions/Awards

Solo Shows

In 2023, Sofya's work was selected for The Summer Exhibition at Royal Academy of Arts in London. Sofya has exhibited across Scotland, in galleries such as the Royal Sottish Academy in Edinburgh, 16 Nicholson Street in Glasgow and Look Again Space in Aberdeen. She recently held a solo show ‘I will return someday’ in Alchemy Experiment, Glasgow. In 2022, Sofya was invited by Stavroula Coulianidis to exhibit at STAV Galerie in New York.

Public Collections

Cats and Cars

Statement about AOAP Submitted Artwork

The postcard compositions came from my innate fascination with drawing animals. Cats and dogs frequently present themselves in my work as a means to explore the relationship between humans and pets. This time, a black and white cat takes the centre stage. The cat is no longer in my life but lives deep within my memory. In The Memory of Memory, Maria Stepanova quotes the theory of C.S. Lewis “pets who are drawn into a loving relationship with a human grow their own soul, and in doing so are given a chance at eternal salvation”. It is no secret that animals who have been part of our life always stay with us as our little guardians

The idea behind putting cars in the compositions came from my small collection of toy cars that I have in my studio. Although I don’t know much about the makes of the cars, I have grown up around my brothers collection of toy cars and his passion for rare and vintage cars that he has taken pictures of since he was a child

Juxtaposing those memories together, I was looking to combine two different types of ‘love’ that people experience. Whether it is love that we feel for a pet or love that we feel for certain objects, both equally create memories that provide us with a feeling of joy.

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