With her gestural art, based on unpredictable trajectories and imprecise alchemy, Polina imitates the generating force of nature. She loves the idea of an ‘open’ art that can reach anywhere.
Polina, tell us about your path in art.
It all started quite early in my family. My father studied art and my mother studied fashion in St Petersburg, where they met. So I grew up in this world and attended a fashion and design school, where I could also practice music and other disciplines. In short, I had so many possibilities in front of me. As a child I wanted to be an astronaut, and today I find myself making paintings inspired by astrology: life takes strange paths.
I left St Petersburg to go to Belgium, to attend the Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, and I started studying fashion. I graduated, but above all I experienced four quite intense years, where I was constantly losing myself and searching for myself: I needed to understand myself in order to decide what my future could be, as an alchemical search of self. Again, I had the opportunity to get to know disciplines related to art, which also helped me to express myself emotionally, and not just technically.
Later I lived in London and Paris, and about ten years ago I moved to Italy for a consultancy, thinking I would stay for a short time: instead I am still here and have two children. I work as a fashion consultant, and I forecast new trends by linking fashion, sociology and anthropology; I also teach at Polimoda in Florence.
Have you always continued painting, beyond this work?
In part, yes. I used to do press consultancy, I used to do illustrations for private clients, but it was only a year ago that I decided to give more space to art. Maybe the name artist sounded a bit too strong to me and I never called myself that. Instead, a year ago, I decided to start on this path, telling more about it, contacting more people. So I met Francesca and Cinquerosso Arte, and got to know other galleries.
Where do your works come from?
I am very inspired by nature, but by let’s say ‘pagan’ nature, as an elemental and parental force. I like to think of nature when there were no human beings yet, which we then translated as energy: chaos, darkness, sunset, birth. Nature, in short, in its most primordial manifestations and for this I am often inspired by mythology and pagan religions. It is interesting to note the points of contact with science. Take electricity, for example. We are used to think of electricity as something technical, a product of knowledge, instead this force was there at the beginning of time: it is in every atom, in every cell.
I made a series of paintings called Electricity and Electric Sky, which are inspired by this very reflection. Another series is called First Beings, the first beings, which are precisely the ideas of wind, air, the first elements. Other series are connected to the signs of the zodiac, their relationship to the elements, to the most changeable energy and the most stable energy, the energy of destruction, of fire, or of water, of change.
Tell us about your technique, which is quite special.
I find myself very much in the technique called Gesture Painting. I am working with inks based on natural resins, extracted from insects, which are water-repellent and do not dilute: in this way, quite unexpected shapes are created. Moreover, I do not touch the paper: I pour the ink and guide the fall trajectory without being able to fully predict what will happen.
In this way, matter is transformed, just as nature is transformed: it is the unknown that I like. I feel free from the need for control. Even when a client requests a work from me, he may express preferences for a certain colour or shape, but he has no certainties.
What do you think about Cinquerosso Arte?
I was very happy to be contacted by Francesca. I really liked this vision of an engaging art, open to everyone. Working with very high quality reproductions is something similar to what is happening in the fashion world: there is the one-off piece and then there is ready-to-wear fashion. What Francesca does is ‘ready-made art’, and I find it very interesting. I also feel in tune with the way the artists are selected, not on the basis of curriculum but on the basis of passion, talent and research: there are those who have followed an academic path, those who have always worked with galleries, alongside those who are just starting out. I also really like the possibility of creating a community of artists.
