Anastasiia Podervianska | The Atlas of Human Anatomy

Voloshyn Gallery is proud to present a solo show by Anastasiia Podervianska, entitled The Atlas of Human Anatomy.

The Atlas of Human Anatomy encompasses her new series of textile objects and applications. The artist explores the human body as a construct through traditional women’s crafts: embroidery and sewing. According to the artist, “The current technology creates boundless opportunities that seemed like a futurist fantasy only yesterday. A human body is no exception: it has been transformed into a sort of construction toy that can be modeled at will based on a whole set of options.”

The series invites viewers to approach human anatomy as an inalienable part of human embodied experience. The Atlas of Human Anatomy, that is, need not be treated too literally. Some of the images are symbols open to multiple interpretations rather than factographical accounts of the way things are. “I like playing games with my viewers where I provide impetus for them to create their own interpretations of these works,” the artist claimed.

Podervianska seeks to undermine the stereotype of textiles as a decorative and applied medium for women’s handiwork by using it as a medium for contemporary art. The artist creates sophisticated and multilayered visuals by combining various techniques. Her textile panels are stitched together from patches of embroidered towels and hand-stitched lacework handkerchiefs. Additionally, her works contain elements of collages, brocade insets, and more.

The exhibition marks the first time these works will be presented to the public.

Anastasiia Podervianska was born in 1978 in Kyiv, Ukraine, in the family of artists. She graduated from the T.H. Shevchenko State Comprehensive Art School in 1996, and from the Department of Monumental Art of the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture (advisor: Academy of Arts member Mykola Storozhenko) in 2002. A member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine since 2002. Since her first exhibition in 1992, the artist has participated in more than 40 group projects and plein air retreats. A laureate of the 5th Ukrainian Textile Art Triennial. Podervianska’s works can be found in the Museum of Kyiv History, Korsak Museum of Contemporary Ukrainian Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Ukraine, as well as in private collections in Ukraine, Poland, Germany, Macedonia, and the USA. Her works have been exhibited at international art fairs, including Scope Miami Beach (2017), VOLTA Basel (2018), and viennacontemporary (2018). In September-November 2019, her works will be presented at the 8th WTA International Biennial of Contemporary Textile Art in Madrid, Spain.