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Artist Irina Nakhova exists in the liminal space between places and identities. She is a Russian artist now living primarily in America who still spends extended periods in Europe and Russia. She was raised under the Soviet system, a member of the close-knit avant-garde there who experienced the freedom that followed Perestroika. She is an active artist, consistently pursuing changing approaches to her art in search of an intellectually stimulating, visually challenging image and form in her work. Her work is conceptually rich and visually involving. |
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Irina Nakhova – Anne Swartz
Artist Irina Nakhova exists in the liminal space between places and identities. She is a Russian artist now living primarily in America who still spends extended periods in Europe and Russia. She was raised under the Soviet system, a member of the close-knit avant-garde there who experienced the freedom that followed Perestroika. She is an active artist, consistently pursuing changing approaches to her art in search of an intellectually stimulating, visually challenging image and form in her work. Her work is conceptually rich and visually involving. Yet, her work has not been widely collected outside of Europe, so most of the New York art world still has to discover her intense, penetrating and engaging art.
Fortunately, a friend showed me a 2004 exhibition catalogue of her work and I was immediately transfixed. She has combined painting with installation in truly inventive ways since the early 70s. Her work remains fresh in its intellectual musing about identity, particularly gender, and is often responsive to the presence of the viewer. Yet, her personal history; growing up in Russia at a time when life was entirely controlled by the state, and her connections with the unofficial artists group in Moscow during the 1970s and 1980s now known as the Moscow Conceptual School, reverberates throughout her art. As such, her work was recently included in an exhibition at the Ronald Feldman Gallery, “Artists Against the State: Perestroika Revisited.” She regularly exhibits in New York and throughout Europe. I asked her several questions about her current work.
Anne Swartz: How does painting fit into your art today?
Irina Nakhova: Painting is a luxury. It is when I am gaining time rather than spending time on projects. In order to paint, I need to have my head completely clear of everything and to be 1000% out of life as it exists in order to switch to a painting mode where time is not just standing still, but where I am able to gain time for the future. That is why real painting is not only a rarity, but the most precious time, especially for me as I am very busy with many things to accomplish. I am constantly painting in my mind, but luxury begins when I can isolate myself and get into this other circumstance with a different understanding of time. It must be free of any concern other than painting. Maybe what I am saying would be perceived by a reader to be a very conservative approach, but, for a viewer, it may give an idea of concentration and effort.
AS: How do you characterize your public?
IN: Ideally, my public needs to be well-educated and open, but not necessarily because I aim for my work to be understood on many levels, both visually and conceptually. So, the educated public will perhaps get more of the connotations and references, but also, ideally, art should be as direct as a well-landed punch that can strike anyone.
AS: What are the vital issues in your art?
IN: One of my largest goals is to create spaces for different experiences: physical and intellectual that do not exist otherwise as spaces. I want to stir and provoke independent thinking and new feelings.
AS: What are you doing now in your work?
IN: I am focusing on the vital issues in my work [as I just described]. Right now, thematically, I am concerned with issues of aging and how, intellectually and physically, capacities in some ways diminish, but could be replaced with different types of understandings towards the world. These issues are about choices, of older people and of old aging societies and therefore are intrinsic to art in general: what is kept, what is thrown away and what becomes pollution in both the individual’s life and in the physical and cultural larger world. Making art is about constantly making choices.
AS: What interests you today in the art world?
IN: I am desperately looking for non-entertaining art forms from other artists. It is not only difficult to find in visual art, but other types as well, such as music, film and literature. I am interested in art that gives experiences, that is powerful and eye-opening and that has significance. Significance in a way that gives insight to both individual and social life, as I still believe that art is power. It seems to be more and more difficult to find these qualities in contemporary art than in art of the past, whether it is art from the recent past, or centuries ago.
