LARGER THAN ME | solo exhibition at Kathrin Cawein Gallery of Art

by Tyler Brumfield

The Kathrin Cawein Gallery of Art is proud to present LARGER THAN ME, and exhibit by Tatyana Ostapenko from Feb. 7 to March 4. Ostapenko is a contemporary painter and a muralist whose art practice is deeply influenced by her experience as an immigrant, as well as by her formative years in the economically and socially unstable environment of post-Soviet Ukraine.

Opening Reception: 

There will be a virtual artist talk on  3:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 9,  accessible via Zoom: https://pacificu.zoom.us/j/99550768151
The exhibit is held at the Cawein Gallery in Scott Hall on the Forest Grove Campus. The reception is also In-person attendees must follow campus COVID-19 protocols.

Artist's Statement: 

Tatyana Ostapenko makes contemporary history paintings that record the daily lives of people who don’t usually make it into official historical records. She memorializes the middle children of progress and history, her fellow former Soviet citizens as painting subjects. Old women in flowered kerchiefs, leggy damsels desperate for glamour, indomitable middle-aged women dragging heavy bags to the bus stop march across her expressive magical realist canvases.

A distinguishing feature of her artwork is the juxtaposition of realistic rendering and bold abstract paint application. Having started her artistic journey as a street photographer, Ostapenko uses photographic references and digital collage to generate ideas and compositions. She employs a combination of web sourced amateur photographs, her friends’ family archives, and pictures she has taken during her travels in post-soviet Ukraine. Her painting process is intuitive and open-ended, and while she uses photo collage as a starting point, the finished paintings largely deviate from the source material. Her painting practice is a process of exploration of both materials and subject matter, and her loose and violent mark-making allows for unexpected discovery at the end of each brushstroke. 

The resulting paintings are an inaccurate record of the everyday history of a distinct flavor with a particular voice that is not often heard either in the West, nor in its homeland. Using specific, yet transformed images of her native country, Ostapenko explores the universal themes of human experience: resilience, empathy and humor in the face of adversity.

Artist's Biography: 

Due to her personal history and the collective histories of the former Soviet Union citizens, Ostapenko always comes back to the themes of trans-generational trauma and the gender inequalities that persist in her country of origin as well as in the U.S. She uses images from her native Ukraine to speak about universal human experiences with emphasis on empathy and resilience in the face of adversity. 

Her paintings have been exhibited in regional, national and international museums, galleries and art fairs. She has received professional development grants from the Regional Arts and Culture Council and the Oregon Arts Commission. Her artworks have been purchased by public, corporate and private collections, including the city of Seattle and Stumptown Coffee HQ. 

Ostapenko was born in the Soviet Union and raised in Ukraine. She lives in Portland, and holds a BFA in Studio Practice from Portland State University.

Exhibition Info: 

LARGER THAN ME will run from Monday, Feb. 7 until Friday, March 4. The Cawein Gallery of Art is open Monday through Friday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and follows the Pacific University academic calendar regarding holidays and closures. In-person attendees must follow campus COVID-19 protocols.

The exhibition is also available to viewed by appointment. To make an appointment, please send an email to brum1878@pacificu.edu.

Blind Insect Gallery featuring Russian speaking artists in Portland, Oregon

Three Graces
oil and acrylic on canvas
20x36 inches
2020
Available

BARRIO RUSO: artist block party on NE Alberta

“On July 29th, we are excited to present the third installment of BARRIO, a gathering of culture, sounds, flavors, and art. This month Blind Insect Gallery is featuring Russia. Under the umbrella of Russian-speaking artists, the culture that comes forth is unique and diverse in its roots.

As the third installment of this project, we’re going to feature the artworks by the Russian artists Aleksandra Apocalisse, Igor Snigirev, Inna Pustakhanova, Oksana K, Oleg Kash, Tatyana Ostapenko, Anya Mironets, Goni Na Lyubov, and Yana Golberg.

We will explore the sounds of Russian musician and songwriter Irina Myachkin and dance music with the Dj Zhenya. Fools House Art Collective will be bringing us a uniquely immersive experience via theater. @housefoolofart

This BARRIO We are bringing together the flavors of Russia via a participatory style pot luck. We will be happy to see your version of a Russian tapas to share with the community.

All are welcome to come and explore culture and art with the Blind Insect Gallery. Opening Reception and event runs from 6:30pm - 9:00pm on Thursday, July 29th at Blind Insect Gallery.”

— https://www.instagram.com/p/CRPMhuiB8f-/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

PORTLAND OPEN STUDIOS 2020

Portland Open Studios Tour

This is the first year I am participating in the Portland Open Studios tour. During this city wide annual event that takes place on the second and third weekends of October, more than 100 artists open their studios to the public. Any other year there would be a tour map that sends you all around town to get an intimate look at the creative spaces and processes of the local makers. And you’d discover new neighborhoods and a new favorite coffee shop or a brewpub along the way.

“Connecting with artists in their studios gives you the unique opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of their art and where it comes from”

— https://www.travelportland.com/events/portland-open-studios/

With this year's challenges, the tour had to adapt and go online just like so many other cultural events have already. At first I was pretty bummed because I was so looking forward to welcoming visitors into my space, showing my paintings, talking about my ideas and process. And as the year went on and pretty much all of my art presentation was happening exclusively online, I realized that there are great advantages to a virtual open studio tour.

Advantages of virtual artist studio tours

For one, I could invite my friends and collectors from all over the world to participate. I absolutely love my Portland art community. It has been nurturing and supportive ever since I started my journey as a painter 7 years ago. But I always want to take my art to other places, both nationally and internationally, so what a better opportunity to do it in a novel and intimate format of an open studio tour.

Talk about open: Open to the whole world! I love it.

⁠⠀

Technical Challenges and Solutions

I moved studios just a few months ago and while I love this space, it presents a few challenges. The main one is that there is no natural light. And coming from a large industrial loft with a wall of windows, it's quite a change. There was a lot of trial and error. I finally figured out how to light my work space properly just to discover that what is more than sufficient for painting, is woefully dark for video. 

It feels like an eternity since the last time I installed a show, and I can't wait to get all these small but mighty ladies up on my studio wall. It is so much fun to see them all together.

Installing artwork: A wall of babushkas

I am often so consumed by my projects and ideas, always working toward something new, pushing forward, that I forget to take a step back and take it all in. And installing artwork for this event gave me the opportunity to spend time with all these paintings and just be in their presence. It’s been a great experience, and new ideas and connections I haven’t noticed before emerged as a result.

You might wonder how long it took me to install this wall and honestly I didn’t count the hours, and it didn’t take days. Having curated a gallery for a few years, I have a lot of experience installing shows. My process might appear haphazard, but in reality it’s just a very intuitive approach to artwork installation. I hang shows the way I paint: I respond to the subjects and materials: I don’t think, I just move. And the same way as I am not afraid of mistakes on a painting (there is always more paint!) I am not concerned about trying a layout just to find out it doesn't work (there is always putty for the walls and more nails in the box.)

Here’s a little sneak peek of the Babushka Wall. Please forgive my less than stellar camerawoman skills. I recorded this while picking up the camera on the tripod and moving the whole cumbersome contraption around. Which made me realize something I never thought I would have to do, but: I have to buy a selfie stick for the official IG Live event! Yup, a selfie stick. They have stabilizers, so it will be less bumpy and woozy when I move around the studio.

How shaky is my camera work? 😅

Visit my studio virtually with IG Live

And you can see them all together, from afar and up close and personal if you tune into my IG Live on October 18th at 1pm Pacific Time. I am @postsovietart on Instagram. Here’s a link to my account and if you follow me, you’ll get a notification when the livestream begins.

You have to have an Instagram account to watch the broadcast. If you don’t or aren’t available at that time, send me an email contact@tatyanaostapenko.com and we’ll set you up with your own private studio visit.

But hurry, this orderly and well organized wall of babushkas will descend into the usual chaos of a working artist studio shortly after this Sunday open studio tour. 🙃

Fun Casual Venue, Affordable Art

Happy to work with a new curator

Danielle is an awesome local artist and an avid art collector.  She curates a few casual spaces around Portland, and we just installed 26 of my earlier paintings at one of them, Blackbird Pizza on SE Hawthorne.  Music is loud, pies are solid good, booze is plentiful and there are arcade machines in the back. I love the irreverent spirit of the place and think my work is quite fitting.

I am clearing out my art storage and all older work is half off normal prices during August. I love my paintings but I bet they'll look better on your walls than in my storage.

Pleasant discovery about the past

It was really fun to excavate my painting storage and find some paintings from when I was first starting out. One thing I didn’t expect was to be pleasantly surprised by so many of them. Back when I was beginning to paint in 2012, I was using acrylic paints and felt constantly frustrated by their limitations.  I am fascinated by the freshness and raw quality of gesture and fun daring solutions that elude me now that I have the amazing malleability of oil paint at my disposal. Maybe I should give acrylic another try?

Good Paintings at Deep Discounts

Anyways, despite having rediscovered many good things about my earlier paintings, I have just a few too many and I would rather have you enjoy them on your walls than put them back into storage after the show is done. 

They are up for a month. Go get them.

Are you in town in August? Want to have a drink and talk art with me at Blackbird?

Tell me if you are around and would like to come to a casual artist reception toward the end of the month to hang out with me, ask questions, buy original at seriously low prices. If I get a lot of folks, interested, I’ll set up a reception date.

Thanks!

Soviet School Children are Heading to South Korea

"Matinee" is selected for the 5th Geoje International Art Festival in South Korea.

I am delighted to announce that my work was selected for exhibition in 2019 5th Geoje International Art Festival this fall in South Korea.

The theme of the festival is “Freedom and Peace“. The festival is hosted by the Haegeumgang Theme Museum in Geoje.

It’s been a couple of years since I have participated in an international show and I hope I’ll be able to attend and visit a dear friend Hyunju Kim who has been residency hopping in China and South Korea.

I have never been any further east than my hometown in Ukraine and I am super excited to go on this art adventure!

(My well known kimchi obsession has nothing to do with the choice of location, I promise)

Solo Show at the Joinery

Please join us for an opening reception at the Joinery

on May 23rd, 5-7pm.

About the venue:

The Joinery began as a one-person furniture refurbishing and repair business in 1982. Today we are proud to employ a team of highly skilled people operating with a strong sense of shared values to design, build and sell our furniture. We use time-honored joinery techniques to create masterful pieces in a variety of modern and traditional designs. We challenge ourselves to continually improve, innovate, and create wood furniture that is as functional and durable as it is beautiful. We invite you to drop in to our Portland, Oregon woodshop and watch our craftspeople at work.  

The products you will see here represent only part of our offering. If you need modifications to a standard piece — or you have a vision of something entirely new — we invite you to talk to us: our team will work with you to make sure you get exactly the look, feel and function you had in mind.

Refreshments are provided by the venue and the artist will be present.

The Joinery

922 SW Yamhill St, Portland, OR

Blue Blazer

We are all dressed up and ready to go to a party! ⁣

Blue Blazer granny here got selected into the CAP Auction and I get to dance and drink wine with the Portland beau monde. ⁣

There might just be an electric blue vintage dress in my closet that matches her sweater perfectly.⁣

April 29th, 2019

Montgomery Park

2701 NW Vaughn St
Portland, OR

What's your favorite city?

When I was a kid my favorite city was Odessa.
It had a magical aura of adventure and freedom, a sea port dubbed "The Capital of Humor" in the Soviet Union for the wit of its citizens was legendary.
It never snowed there (I could hardly imagine a place like that!) and everyone wore jeans and cool imported leather jackets. Or so I imagined.

I did visit Odessa before leaving for the US in 1998. I was in love with a witty and stylish Odessite. We spent two languorous months sunning at the city beaches and baking clams on the hills overlooking  salt marshes and industrial suburbs.

And this summer I get to revisit this charming city of my childhood fantasy and youthful frolicking. My work was selected for the Odessa Biennial and this will be my first international show. Three of my paintings will be displayed at the month and a half long multidisciplinary exhibit in Odessa, Ukraine.

The theme of the biennial is turbulence. I couldn’t think of a more fitting theme, as my artwork is largely inspired by the turbulent post-soviet years and the lives of ordinary people faced with times of extreme uncertainty and momentous change.

If you are in that part of the world late summer, perhaps I can see you at the show!

Odessa Biennial

Like the Masters

I am a contemporary painter, but I am deeply influenced by the traditions of European and Russian art.  For better or worse, classical painting techniques are rarely taught in American art schools. So I found a book that promised to reveal the secrets of the Masters in step by step instructions.  The tutorial images look more like 80s soft core porn: unrealistically round perky breasts and half open puffy lips of the models are lovingly emphasized by dramatic chiaroscuro.  But I would not be deterred and followed the prescribed steps and painted my soviet citizens instead.

There is a craft aspect of this method that is appealing and soothing. There is a relaxing quality in having set parameters and knowing what the next step is. The palette is extremely simple and  I feel like I can really focus on the subtleties of light and shadow. This is something that was always challenging and overwhelming in my usual approach where I attack the canvas and attempt to solve for all the unknowns simultaneously.  The traditional approach to oil painting does feel more like craft, more like following in the footsteps of the other master craftsmen that have perfected a method. And it's very different from my past painting experiences in which come up with the method as I go.
 

While "learning from the Masters" I decided to really focus on my subjects, to isolate them from their environment, to elevate the beer drinking factory worker and the bored toilet plunger sales girl using the classical portrait techniques.  This way I can focus on finely rendering facial features and give special attention to the way the clothing drapes the body. I want to paint the worker's smock and the shop girl's bulky vest like the luxurious finery of the stately nobles of the past who were the predominant subjects of such portraiture. I want to do this because I know so intimately how that drab blue-gray worker's smock drapes and folds, how hateful those standard issue uniforms were. I had one too.

OPEN AIR at Multnomah Art Center

OPEN AIR: Solo show at Multnomah Art Center

WHO: Tatyana Ostapenko

WHAT: “Open Air,” paintings

WHERE: MULTNOMAH ARTS CENTER GALLERY

              Multnomah Arts Center

              7688 SW Capitol Hwy

              Portland, OR 97219

WHEN: Exhibit: January 6 – 31, 2017

           Opening Reception: Friday, January 6, 7-9pm

HOURS: Mon-Fri: 9am-9:30pm

             Sat & Sun: 9am-5pm

“Open Air,” an exhibit of paintings by Tatyana Ostapenko, will be on view at the Multnomah Arts Center gallery beginning January 6.  The oils on canvas and wood draw upon the subjects of her post-soviet homeland of Ukraine. They pay homage to the native traditions of realist and social realist painting.  An opening reception will be held in the gallery Friday, January 6, 7-9pm.  The show may be seen through January 31.

Solo Show in Seattle

Other People’s Borscht
Tatyana Ostapenko

On view at September 8th - November 10th
Reception Thursday, October 13th, 5-7 pm

We hope you can join us for snacks, libations and conversations. 
 

We hope you can join us for October's Capitol Hill Art Walk!