Asya Livshits
Artist Statement
"It occurred to me recently that I haven’t started a new life in quite a while, maybe for a year or so. I used to do it pretty regularly, like periodically cutting my hair and moving my furniture. In the past, I would decide how my life should be from now on and then just watch how that wouldn’t work. I’ve realized that this year I forgot to do it.
So my life was running unattended and my painting just had to follow. Lately, I was working mostly from photographs, either shot specifically for the purpose of making a painting, or shot by accident in a way that they could make a good painting. I like to photograph my friends or make photos from the movies because they hold some kind of emotional weight that enriches the image and makes it interesting enough for me to look at for many hours and eventually transform it into my own.
It is hard to tell how I chose the photographs. When I looked at them, I kind of knew that these photos have something to do with me. We all have great amount of free will, which means that every second we make choices -- good, bad, practical, unpractical, forced, or free. I feel that the best way to make any choice is to try to figure if it’s your own, trying them on like shoes, and figuring how they look and feel on you. One’s own choice could be scary, difficult, and costly, but it would still make one feel free and comfortable with oneself.
At some point, I looked at all of my paintings side by side, and all together they resembled a tarot spread, or most likely just a fragment of it, relevant to my life at this very moment. These are situations that could be randomly pulled out of the deck for me. They are about my past, present, and future, and the most important ones are still to be painted."
Exhibitions
Asya Livshits
Retrospective
February 6th – 28th, 2015
Mikhail Prosmushkin, Asya Livshits
Favorite Things
November 7 – 31, 2014
Asya Livshits
Selected Works
September 7th – 29th, 2012
Asya Livshits
Recent Paintings
September 2nd – 30th, 2011
Asya Livshits
Selected Works
September 3rd – 26th, 2010
Asya Livshits
Ceramic Masks
December 4th – 26th, 2009
Asya Livshits
Solo Show
September 4th – 30th, 2009
Selected Works
