NADEJHDA OLEG LYAHOVA

The video installation FRAMES includes 6 projections dedicated to various visual and social limitations. In three of her videos: The Inexorable Nature of the Renaissance, The Irresistible Charm of Impressionism and The Irrefutable Argument of Conceptualism (created in 2012–2013), the artist comments upon trends in visual art, namely Renaissance, Impressionism and Conceptualism, posing unambiguous questions about the potential liberties and limitations of each one of them. She adds to them the 2005 work Talk, which is actually a spontaneously recorded conversation between artists about some of the most prominent names in the history of painting.

A counterpoint to the above is the video Burden, where the artist tells a personal story from her childhood – the time when aesthetical preferences are shaped together with a system of views pertaining to one’s overall perception of the world.

In Elusive Images (2012), within the framework of five minutes and 45 seconds, Nadezhda Oleg Lyahova offers us her vision of the surrounding world, evidently shaped by all opportunities and limitations considered until that moment. Visual layering and the acquired social experience contribute to a multifaceted and well-rounded view. Hence the diverse “readings“ of the world, which resemble image layering in a video.

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Nadezhda Oleg Lyahova was born in 1960 in Sofia, where she works and lives. The artist is known for her ability to “capture“ and re-create the most delicate, frequently invisible, states of objects, people and human interrelations. Her ability to notice what others fail to see, to discern the nuances even in the most everyday situation and the most ordinary event places her among the most sensitive contemporary artists. Her more prominent solo exhibitions include: eco stories, Sklada+, Sofia, 2011; Globally and on a Long-term Basis the Situation Is Positive, Sofia City Art Gallery, 2009, Moderate Optimism, 6 September Street, No.9, Sofia, 2008; Nadezhda Oleg Lyahova, Centre for Contemporary Art, Pancevo, Serbia, 2008; The Lions of Sofia, Artists’ Association fabs, Warsaw, Poland, 2006 and the Goethe Institute, Sofia, 2005; Vanitas, Yokohama Museum of Art, Japan, 2004. She is the winner of the Gaudenz B. Ruf Award for 2009.