An Artist.
Magical Feminism.
Nina Murashkina:
“Magical feminism is my way of seeing the world.
I interpret reality according to my own perception and recreate it in my works. In my works the woman is the protagonist. And the man has a secondary role. The woman that I express in my works is a powerful entity, a type of divinity that triumphs, she can ride an animal or a wise man.
This representation of women in my point of view is feminist. And it is magical because it enhances feminine attributes from a mythical perspective.”
Author with the vases 1.jpg
Nina Murashkina makes sensual and metaphorical art which is built on her own sexuality and empirical knowledge of herself.
The artist crystallizes her own intimate experiences and reproduces her own vision of a woman through the vivid feminine images. The women with ambiguous and discredited positioning today are the Goddess: strong and weak at the same time with their snakelike plasticity and delicate sense, rational aspiration and irrational doubt that is able to capture but is more often to be captured.
She lives with the infinite thirst for the harmony of all her entities. Murashkina and her female characters are integral to each other, her stories are the ones of her own experiences and metaphorical self portraits. From a young age she subtly compiled her female image. The elegance of the 19th century was borrowed from the Victorian literature and boldly combined with the ghostly memories of the gloomy, late-Soviet life of Donetsk – the smell of nylon stockings and worn out mother’s pearls.
The realities of the environment where the artist formed are deliberately adorned by the aesthetics of the sentimental era. The fairy fabulousness of Nina’s world scares and the imaginary intimate images of her diaries arise their erotic tone. The artist openly and ironically speaks of one-time love, self-sacrificing trust and the naive play of a young woman towards maturity. With acquiring experience a young woman ascends the peak, where she could for the first time entirely embrace herself in artistic practice and peer into new perspectives.
Murashkina blatantly juggles with a variety of symbols in her works and among the accumulated cultural codes of the epoches the perceiver will meet the attending symbols which will lead them through the tunnels of the artist’s world.
For example, the eyes on the nipples are a long-standing image of hypersensitivity, the ability to rely on deep irrational inner instruments of cognition of the world.
A book unfolded on the knees is the pursuit of rational knowledge, which borders on physical desires and emotional elusiveness.
The bed is the space of the most important life events like sleep, dreams, love, conception, birth and death.
And the snakes, which are identified by the artist with femininity represent the elastic fineness, silence and fascinating sexuality. The Spanish artist Xavier Escala created the installation “I’m very shy.” based on Nina’s works, The artists’ tandem leads us to the key idea – harmony. This is an ideological display of the exposition and the symbolic act of sacrifice, which must be raised to itself, in order to leave everything unnecessary in the past and to allow it to exist in the future.
The exhibition “On the Top!” is the search for harmony, maturity and triumph of love of Nina Murashkina. And it’s also a milestone and a bold statement: “I have come true!”
To be continued.
Art critic, Galina Gleba.
1985 – born in Donetsk, Ukraine.
2000 – 2005 – studied at Donetsk Art College (Graphic Design).
2005 – 2009 – studied at Kharkiv Art Design Academy (Monumental Painting).
2011 – Studied at the Kyiv Academy of Art (Stage design and Film)
2012 – Poland, Krakow. Jan Mateyko Art Academy (Paintings).
Since 2017 lives and works in Sant Cugat Sesgarrigues, (province of Barcelona, Spain).
Selected projects:
2024
“NordArt” 25 anniversary edition / ¨Contemporary Art Exhibition, Budelsdorf, Germany. June – October 2024.
“LÁGE D´OR” / Valid World Hall, Barcelona, Germany. May, 2024.
“Apple and Needle” / Eye. See. Gallery. Kyiv, Ukraine. February, 2024.
“SHERO” / Rukh Art Hub, New York, USA. February, 2024.
2023
“Diamond Jam” / First Ukrainian Gallery / New York, USA. November, 2023.
“Your Sweet Lies” / Center Culturel d´Ukraine in Paris, France. October, 2023.
“Somniadors”, duo exhibition with Xavier Escala / chapel of Sant Joan, Vilafranca del Penedes, Spain.
A-FAD Award in recognition of the career of Nina Murashkina / Best Design of the Year / Barcelona Design Museum / Barcelona, Spain. October, 2023.
- “Dreamers”, duo exhibition with Xavier Escala / Test Gallery, Barcelona, Spain. June, 2023.
“Sonya” Gallery Project / The Pavilion at Century Park / Los Angeles, USA. June,
“Resistance Path” / Helms Design Center / Los Angeles, USA. May, 2023.
Hamptons Fine Arts Fair / New York, USA. May, 2023.
Ukrainian Art Auction / Cromwell Place / London, UK. April, 2023.
2022
“Scope Art Show” / Miami Beach, USA. November – December, 2022.
“Fresh Art Fair” / Ascot, United Kingdom, September 2022.
¨Affordable Art Fair¨/ Scotland, United Kingdom, September, 2022.
“Ukraine Exhibition”, group exhibition / ¨Port Gallery¨, Barcelona, Spain, September, 2022.
¨Hamptons Fine Art Fair¨/ New York, USA. July 2022.
¨Nord Art¨/ ¨Contemporary Art Exhibition, Budelsdorf, Germany. June – October 2022.
“Artists against war”, group exhibition / ¨Palo Alto¨, Barcelona, Spain. May 2022.
“Affordable Art Fair UK”, 10th anniversary edition / Hampstead Heath London, United Kingdom, May 2022.
“Affordable Art Fair UK” / New York, United States, March 2022.
2021
“Woman and Man” / Mironova Gallery, Kyiv, Ukraine. December, 2021.
“Allegory of Innocence”, solo exhibition / Triptych Art Gallery, Kyiv, Ukraine. October 2021.
“Time is not wasted” / Biruchiy 021 / Zaporizhia, Ukraine. September-November 2021.
“Kniga” / Golden Gates Museum, Kyiv, Ukraine. September 2021.
“Kronos Festival” / Santa Monica Exhibition Center, Barcelona, Spain. June 2021.
Nord Art / Contemporary Art Exhibition, Budelsdorf, Germany. June – October 2021.
Art residence, Normandy / Normandy, France. January 2021.
2020
“Out of Scope” / Izolation, contemporary art center, Kyiv,Ukraine.
“Univers intim” / chapel of Sant Joan, Vilafranca del Penedes, Spain.
2019
“Lysistrata” solo show / Korsak´s Museum of Ukrainian Contemporary Art, Lutsk, Ukraine.
“Exodus” / International Symposium of Contemporary Art BIRUCHIY / Island Biruchiy, Ukraine.
“Summer Show” / Golden Ratio Gallery, Kyiv, Ukraine.
Nord Art / Contemporary Art Exhibition, Budelsdorf, Germany.
Kyiv Art Fair / Toronto Business Center, Kyiv, Ukraine.
“Intro” / Korsak´s Museum of Ukrainian Contemporary Art, Lutsk, Ukraine.
2018
“NINOCHKA” / presentation of artbook / BOOK Arsenal, “Art Arsenal” Kyiv, Ukraine.
“BAD / BED” Performance / KYIV ART FAIR, Toronto Business Center, Kyiv, Ukraine.
Individual project “NINOCHKA” within the framework of the project “Equally different” / Institute of Contemporary Art of the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine.
2016:
“Black Chocolate in Gold” / Glo’art residence in Belgium.
ZINE art festival / Vienna, Austria.
“Earthly Delights” / “Nicolas Treadwell’s Gallery”, Vienna, Austria.
2015
“INSATIABLE”, Contemporary Art Kyiv 10 / “Art Arsenal Gallery” in Kyiv, Ukraine. / art centre “Yagallery”, Dnipro, Ukraine.
2014
“I LOVE YOU” / Forum of the art ContemporaryArtKyiv projects – 9,“Art Arsenal Gallery”. Kyiv, Ukraine.
Curatorial Projects:
2015
“TOY STORY” curator project / Voloshin Gallery, Kyiv, Ukraine.
“Woman Secret” curatorial project in the Contemporary Art Kyiv project 10. / “Art Arsenal Gallery” in Kyiv, Ukraine.
2014
«Golden Rain over us» curatorial project /10 exhibition hall “VDNKH”. Kyiv, Ukraine.
Art collections:
“Bene Stiftung” foundation, Hannover, Germany.
“Treadwell gallery” art collection, Vienna – Burgenland, Austria.
“Odesa Fine Arts Museum” art collection, Odesa, Ukraine.
“Korsak´s museum of Ukranian modern art” art collection, Lutsk, Ukraine.
“Grynyov Art Collection”, Kharkiv, Ukraine.