Young Russian Artists: The Rite of Spring

This canvas is part of a series of works about the deep blue. When the world is on pause, navigating in time and space feels like new territory. My lyrical hero is literally and metaphorically "broken." Jumping and diving is a form of escapism and dissolution in this world, diving into the bottomless nothingness, frozen in time. Water symbolises purification, it’s a new start in our endless search for freedom. The painting was created in my home studio during lockdown.

Olya Avstreyh is a student at Moscow's HSE Art and Design School.  

Accolades
Education: MA Contemporary Painting, HSE ART & DESIGN, Moscow, 2019-21. MA Media Management, University of Westminster, London, 2011-13. BA Foreign Languages and Area Studies (GB), Lomonosov Moscow  State University, 2005-10
Group exhibitions: Reluctant Relationships, HSE ART GALLERY, 2020. It’s Going To Be Alright, WHITE ROOM FOUNDATION, 2020. Videochat: Send Nudes, HSE ONLINE GALLERY, 2020. Call Me Back, I’m Home, HSE ONLINE GALLERY, 2020. New Norm. New Realities, TELLING STORIES 3-D Online, 2020. Sample х HSE ART Gallery Exhibition/Auction, HSE ART GALLERY/GUM, 2019.
Solo Exhibitions: Happy hour, BETWEENWINDOWS GALLERY, 2020.  

@avstreyh