London-based artist and illustrator Kate Matsevych hails from Ukraine, where as a teenager she graduated from the School of Fine Arts.
Already as a child, Matsevych showed notable talent and an exceptional passion for art. Ever since, her unceasing artistic drive and distinctive creative dedication have significantly influenced her career and helped her achieve a multifaceted stylistic vocabulary.
The thing that captivates and inspires Matsevych in her art is the essence of feminity. In her paintings and illustrations, she celebrates the beauty and strength of feminine forms. Through her creations, she seeks to emphasize their unique radiance, warmth and love in a light and inspiring manner. For her series title Sophistication, she consciously chose a reduced yet thoroughly multifaceted formal vocabulary that recalls the paper cutouts of Henri Matisse and the cubistically deconstructed bodies of Picasso and Braque. Form, surface and colour are given preference over detail, realism and accurate representation. Rather than individual portraits, her works are figurative interpretations of physical forms and gestures. Using a visual language all her own, Matsevych accentuates the idea of femininity.
The colours are in harmony and their inverse values bring a sense of depth, contrast and plasticity to the canvas. Though stylised, the figurative embodiment is stunning. In two portraits, the means of representation approaches personification. Eyes and facial features are made visible, but at the same time bold colours overpower the person’s likeness and an abstract interplay of contrasts and resolution, of foreground and background, is set in motion. Like a sophisticated mask of stimulating colours, Matsevych’s painted interventions are superimposed over the feminine gaze that radiates from the depths of the image.
Stephan Reisner
